Soul Eater Type 2
by the97thBlu-Jay
Summary: Set thirty years after the events of Soul Eater, a new team of meisters and weapons must face the evils of Kishins, witches, and the mysterious Twilight Movement.
1. Chapter 1

_[Thank you for choosing to read Soul Eater: Type 2. This is my first fanfic on here so feel free to be as brutally honest as possible. I'm using the standard pairing as follows: SoulXMaka, BlackstarXTsubaki, KidXLiz, CronaXPatty, SteinXMarie, and a few others. This story is based in the universe of the ANIME not the manga. Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater or any of its canon characters, but I do own the OCs used in this story. I will try my best to upload a new segment every other week, if not every week. Thank you again for choosing Soul Eater: Type 2.]_

CHAPTER 1: A NEW GENERATION

8 years ago…...

"Wake up, Master Jarid," an old man's voice echoed. "WAKE UP!"

Jarid opened one eye to see his butler, Edgar, standing over him, a look of urgency in his old eyes. Delilah, the maid, stood in the doorway like she was watching out for something.

"What's wrong, Ed?" Jarid asked.

"It's an emergency, young master. Get up, and follow us."

Jarid frowned at this. Usually when Edgar woke him up at hours like this it was for surprise combat training. _I'm just a kid,_ Jarid thought. _Give me a break._ Reluctantly, Jarid dragged himself out from under his covers. Just as he reached the door, however, a loud screech filled the house.

"They're coming!" Delilah yelled.

Edgar put his hands on Jarid's shoulders. "Listen to me, Master Jarid. You need to run to the secret room in your father's study. Do you understand?"

"Edgar, I'm scared. What's going on?"

Edgar ruffled Jarid's hair. "You just need to trust me, alright? Go to the bunker and wait for us there."

Jarid nodded. Edgar led him out of the room and took Delilah's hand. The maid's body turned into a pink light until it transformed into a gauntlet that encased Edgar's right arm. Jarid heard quick footsteps from one end of the hall and got a glimpse of the creature coming after him. It was a freakishly skinny humanoid that appeared to be female with long black hair that reached the floor. Two bat-like wings sprung from its back. Its eyes were red with golden pupils. It let out a shattering screech, and Jarid felt his heart stop.

"Go, Master Jarid!" Edgar ordered. "We will take care of the Kishins!"

Jarid dashed down the other end of the hall and made his way to his dad's study. He slammed the door shut and pushed a chair in front of it. He walked over to one of the bookcases and placed his hand along the trim. An invisible scanner picked up his handprint and soon a holographic keypad appeared. Jarid entered the password. He knew it by heart from the rhyme his mother had taught him.

 _42-42-564_

 _Whenever you want to knock on Death's door_

The shelf made a series of clicking noises and then slid open to reveal a long corridor. As Jarid entered, a man's scream rang through the house. Jarid blinked back tears and took off running down the corridor. It couldn't be true…...Edgar and Delilah couldn't be dead…. they couldn't….

Jarid heard the door to the study crash open, the sounds of the creatures' howls behind him. Suddenly, a hand shoved him to the ground. Jarid was surrounded by not one, but three horrible Kishins: one the long-haired female from before, and two others that appeared male. One was older with short black hair, bulging muscles, and claws. The younger one was skinnier but with longer hair. They both had glowing red and orange eyes like the female.

Jarid started crying. "Please, leave me alone!" he wailed.

The three monsters screamed and leaped into the air to strike at the boy. Jarid closed his eyes and waited for death to come…. but it never did. Instead the sounds of metal against metal and gunshots echoed all around him.

When the fighting stopped, Jarid felt a hand on his shoulder and a girl's voice said, "It's okay. The monsters are gone now."

Jarid opened his eyes to see a girl about his age. She had snow-white hair that reached her waist and eyes that glowed a crimson red. She wore a white sundress, sandals, and a long, pink ribbon in her hair.

"My name is Krystal," she said. "Krystal Fang. What's your name?"

Jarid blinked. "J-Jarid van Karsa."

There's no way this little girl could have taken those three vicious killers. Then Jarid saw them. Standing all around him were several warriors, each holding a dangerous-looking weapon. One of them approached Jarid. She was a tall, middle-aged woman with ash-blonde hair. She wore a long black coat over a white shirt, white pants, boots, and oval-shaped glasses. Behind them were the most intense green eyes Jarid had ever seen. In her hand was a long scythe with a red and black blade.

"Can you tell us what happened here, Jarid?" she asked.

Jarid retold the events of the night, tears running down his face. The woman looked him over and smiled.

"You've been through a lot tonight," she said. "You must have been so scared. But I promise you're safe now."

"Mommy," Krystal said, "should I tell him about the monsters?"

The woman nodded and walked back over to the other strangers. Krystal sat down beside Jarid. Krystal went on to explain who and what the creatures were but Jarid barely heard any of it. He felt like the world was closing in around him.

The woman with glasses returned. She knelt down and said, "I'm sorry this happened to you, Jarid. Is there someone you can live with? Any family members around here?"

Jarid shook his head. "My parents and my brother were my only family around here. My grandfather lives in Ireland, but…. I don't want to live with him…."

"I have an offer for you. You are upset about tonight's events, right?"

"Yeah of course."  
"I would like you to come live with us at the D.W.M.A."

Jarid's eyes widened. His parents had graduated form that school. It was supposed to be the most advanced fighting school in the world.

"My name is Maka Evan," the woman introduced herself. "I'm a teacher there. My husband, Krystal and I live there. I have the power to see a person's soul and I can tell you're special. We would be honored if you came us."

"We could be partners!" Krystal exclaimed. "C'mon it'll be fun!"

Jarid felt happy. These people offered to help him, live with them, in this horrible time. Who would he be to refuse? He smiled slightly and nodded. Another of the strangers approached. This one was a tall man in a black suit. He had black hair with three white stripes, a goatee, and golden eyes.

"I am Death the Kid," he said. "I am the headmaster of the D.W.M.A. I will warn you, coming to this school will push you to your limits every day. If you manage to survive, however, you will become a great warrior. Are you still willing to come?"

Jarid thought, silently. Could he really allow himself to be strained to his limits? Did he have the strength to protect others? Then he looked at Krystal. She smiled at him. He could tell she was determined to be successful, no matter what. She gave him hope.

"I do."

Maka smiled and Krystal jumped for joy. Death the Kid held out a hand. He said, "Jarid, as headmaster of the Death Weapon Meister Academy, I hereby give you admittance to attend my school. Best of luck to you, young man."


	2. Chapter 2

_[Top o' the mornin' to ya, laddies! *cough* Excuse me…...I don't know where that came from. Anyway a little side bit of information I forgot to include in my last note. These first few chapters are going to function as prologues for my new characters just as the first three episodes of the anime were for Maka and co. All the chapters after the first one will be considerably longer. Also in the upcoming chapter 5, there will be an aspect of this story that will probably upset some of you. Basically, one of the original Soul Eater cast is dead. I had to kill them off for a big detail of one of my characters. Not giving any spoilers, but it will definitely hurt some people. Until then, that is all. Have a nice day and keep enjoying Soul Eater Type 2!]_

 **Chapter 2: A New Door Opens**

Present day….

"Juniper Iseley!"

"Present."

"Louise Vega!"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Jarid van Karsa!"

"Yeah!"

Jarid couldn't help but notice how upset Professor Sid looked today as he continued to take the role. His blue skin seemed paler than usual and his permanent scowl more stern. Jarid always had a nagging fear that one day the old zombie would just go berserk and start eating people. Fortunately, he managed to keep his mind together after the science teacher brought him back to life. If anything, Sid was the most un-zombie-like zombie Jarid knew. And he knew some pretty nasty zombies.

"You see it too, huh?" Krystal said.

She sat to Jarid's right, looking over her interlocked fingers. Today she wore her favorite white long-sleeved blouse with a grey diamond pattern, white pants and sandals. She still wore that pink ribbon in her hair. Her outfit looked more professional than Jarid's, which was just a silver jacket over a black tank-top, jeans, and sneakers.

"Yeah," Jarid replied. "Let's go ask him what's wrong after class."

Krystal grinned apologetically. "Sorry, but I can't. Mr. Mifune will get angry if I'm late to his class again."

"Wanna meet up at the mission board later?"  
"Sure."

The class dragged on with something to do with the American Civil War. Finally, the bell rang and immediately the students fled the room. Sid slumped down in his chair and rested his chin on his palm. Jarid approached him, cautiously.

"What is it, van Karsa?" Sid grumbled.

Jarid crossed his arms. "You're upset about something. C'mon, spill it."

The zombie sighed. "It's Max again."

Jarid had a feeling it had to do with Max. Max was Jarid's best friend, but he hated accepting help from others. He could get over his head and into some deep trouble sometimes.

"What did he do this time?" Jarid asked.

Sid's frown deepened. "He's been completely ignoring my advice lately. He isn't any closer to making Aqiza a Death Scythe, and he gets even more reckless with every passing day. I even spoke to Aqiza about this and she said she hasn't been able to get through to him, either. They've been gone on a mission for the past couple days and there's been no word from them. If I were alive, I'd say that kid's like a son to me. I'd hate to hear he walked straight to his death."

Jarid put a hand on Sid's shoulder. "I'll talk to him when he gets back. He'll listen to me. I'll make him get his act together."

"Thanks, van Karsa. Now get outta here. Stein will probably volunteer you for dissection if you're late."  
"No kidding. See ya later, Sid."  
Jarid quickly paced out of the room and into the sea of student traffic. He'd have to scorn Max for blowing Sid off like that. The old man had been the closest thing Max had to a father. But Jarid couldn't worry about that right now. The last thing he needed was a creepy lecture from Professor Stein.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Your meister won't always be there. You have to learn to defend yourselves!"

This was Mr. Mifune's lesson for the day. Krystal was called out to spar with him first. She hesitantly morphed her hands and forearms into long, white blades. She had heard how skilled a fighter the teacher was from her parents, and she didn't feel like she could even come close to him. Surprisingly, however, she had managed to block all of his attacks so far.

"Faster!"

Spoke too soon. Krystal backed up, barely missing the blade approaching her face. She brought up one of her blades and crossed it with Mr. Mifune's. Krystal brought herself to look at her instructor. Mifune stared at her with those cold eyes of his. He wore a white dress shirt with a black tie, black pants, and white shoes. He had grown a beard over the years. His long hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Mifune was in no way a meister, but he knew the ways of war. The sword he used wasn't a student, but it still packed a punch.

He broke the sword lock and delivered a downward strike quicker than the eye could follow. Krystal tried to block, but the force of the blow knocked her down on her butt. Just then, the bell rang, as if confirming her fight was over. The other students exited the gym, leaving Krystal and Mr. Mifune alone. He held out a hand to help her up. Krystal's arms became normal and she stood. The teacher pulled a piece of candy from his pocket and handed it to her.

"Good job today," he said.

Krystal grinned, meekly. "Yeah, right. I couldn't beat you if I tried," she laughed.

"Few opponents I face last that long. You're a great fighter. Your father would be proud."  
There it was.

"Thank you, Mr. Mifune.  
"Hey, after school hours, it's just Mifune. Got it?"

"Yeah."

Krystal scurried out the gym door, disappointed. Not in herself. She was all-around proud of herself for lasting so long against the old samurai. The last person to last so long against him was one of the Veterans, Krystal's uncle, BlackStar. Even though he and his partner vanished long ago, the thought made her feel accomplished. She was disappointed because of what Mifune has said.

 _Your father would be proud._

Krystal should've felt thrilled to receive such a compliment, for both her parents were Veterans. The thing is, she didn't want to be constantly reminded who her parents were. It was a huge shadow she lived under. Sure she loved them, but Krystal's dream had always been to become the greatest Death Scythe ever. She wanted to carve her own path at the Academy. The last thing she wanted was to be thought of as the princess, the beloved daughter of Soul Eater and Maka Evans.

Her meister pulled Krystal out of her thoughts. Jarid leaned up against the wall next to the mission board, cool and collected. Although, Krystal had been his partner long enough to know when something bothered him. His left eyebrow twitched when he was upset. Krystal decided she would ask him about it later.

"Did you pick out a mission for us?" she asked.

Jarid shook his head. "I wanted to wait for you."

Krystal looked over the various missions that were still available. Everything from escorting people to hunting Kishins were listed on the wall. Jarid picked one and read it aloud.

"'Please help. Valuables stolen by bandits. Reward: two hundred dollars.' This one sounds easy."

Krystal replied, "Yeah, but we'll feel better if we get a harder one because it took more effort."

"Good point."

Krystal continued scanning the board until one caught her eye.

 _Serial killer Macedes Versai at large. Responsible for the deaths of a dozen teenage girls. Only kills at night. Must be disposed of immediately._

 _-Lord Death_

Jarid noticed what she was reading. "Not a lot to go on, but it sounds challenging enough. That the one you want?"

Krystal nodded. Jarid pulled the tab from the wall and took it over to the registration counter to sign for the mission.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Later that night, as the moon laughed maniacally overhead, Jarid twisted the ring on his finger. It was a gift from his father when he was young. Now it was the last thing he had to remember him by.

"Mom…. Dad…. Josh…. give me strength to protect what matters. I promise I'll make sure no one else has to go through what I did."

Jarid glanced up to check on Krystal who was sitting at the fountain below. The plan was simple: Krystal would act as bait to draw the killer out, leaving him open for a surprise attack by Jarid. He couldn't help but think about how pretty she looked out there, her snow white hair glistening in the moonlight.

"What are you looking at?" Krystal's voice said from Jarid's earpiece.

"N-nothing!" Jarid stammered. "Just looking out for the Kishin."

"Well you're about to get your wish. North alley."

Jarid looked and saw the menace approaching. Macedes Versai was a long-bodied snake-like monster. His skin was green and scaly with spikes all over him. His eyes were yellow with slits for pupils. A long, bone-like spike shot out of both his wrists. His long tail whipped around behind him. As the Kishin approached, Krystal shuddered in pretend fear. When he got close enough, Krystal gave the signal: a loud taxicab whistle.

Jarid remembered what Professor Stein had said about channeling Soul Wavelength. Focusing it in his feet, Jarid launched himself from the rooftop on which he had been hiding and flew towards the Kishin. Jarid then flipped around, his feet ready to come down on the Kishin's head.

Unfortunately, that's when pain decided to make a brief appearance. Macedes' tail whipped back and smacked Jarid in the midsection, sending him flying across the bricks. Macedes turned his attention to Jarid and closed in for the kill. Krystal didn't like that. She jumped above the Kishin and used its head as a springboard and landed gracefully next to Jarid.

"You okay?" she asked.

Jarid managed to stand. He spat on the ground and said, "Well, y'know, I might have a few broken ribs, but yeah totally fine."

Krystal smiled. "Good. Then let's hurry and end this."

Krystal's body began to glow a sky-blue. Her right arm became a long, silver, crescent moon shaped blade. Her body turned into a six-foot-long staff. This was her weapon form: a scythe. Jarid grabbed the weapon with both hands and twirled it around a few times. Moonlight flashed across the blade. Instead of his reflection, Krystal's face looked back at him.

Macedes Versai became enraged. He charged at Jarid and slashed with his bony blades. Jarid spun his scythe like a baton, blocking each strike. The Kishin tried to slam Jarid with his tail again. With perfect timing, Jarid jumped and stamped his feet down on the tail. He raised Krystal up and _slice!_ The lizard's tail came clean off. As Macedes screamed in pain and rage, Jarid propped his weapon across his shoulders, angling the blade so it pointed upward. He charged, stabbing the Kishin through the stomach. Jarid pulled straight up, slicing Macedes Versai in half.

The Kishin's body began to shrink. In its place hovered a red orb the size of an apple: The Kishin Egg. Krystal turned back into her human form. She walked over to the Egg, picked it up, and stuffed it in her mouth. She chewed for a moment, then swallowed it without flinching.

"Number fifty-six," she counted. "Forty-three more to go."

"Yup," Jarid said. "Over halfway there."

Krystal walked up to a nearby store window and blew onto it. In the fog, she wrote the Death Room's phone number. A few ringing sounds occurred, then a sheet of light passed across the glass. The light faded and a white mask filled the screen.

"Hey, hey!" Lord Death said, his black rag-like body wiggling around. "By the looks on your faces, I'd say the mission went well?"

Jarid nodded. "Yes, sir. Macedes Versai has been taken care of."

"Good, good."

A tuft of white crept up beside the Reaper. Soul Eater gave Jarid that scowl he always did. He looked to Krystal and smiled.

"Good job, Krystal. I'm proud of you. You'll be a Death Scythe in no time at this rate."

Krystal grinned back. "Thanks, dad.

"And you," Soul looked back at Jarid, "don't get a big head. If my baby gets hurt because you got careless…"

"Dad!" Krystal snapped. "Getting hurt is part of the job. That scar on your chest is proof of that."

Soul's hand went instinctively to his chest. "I do believe that's checkmate, Soul," Lord Death put in.

Soul's face blushed. "Whatever. Just be careful. Love you, honey."

"Love you too."

"And Jarid…"

"Yeah?"

"Don't even think about touching my daughter."

"Never crossed my mind."

In the background of the image, Maka's voice could be heard, saying, "You do realize who you sound like, don't you, Soul?"

Soul's eyes widened in terror. "Don't you dare compare me to _HIM_!"

"Keep up the good work you two," Lord Death said, then hung up the call.

The screen went blank. Krystal was already walking away.

"Hey," Jarid stopped her.

"Yeah?"

Jarid put his hands in his pockets. "You wanna…. get something to eat before we head back?"

For a second, she didn't reply. Then she smiled. "Sure. Joe's?"

"My thoughts exactly."

The two made their way to the restaurant, Jarid's grin almost as big as the moon above. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: When in Rome, Fight Kishins like Romans**

That night started like any other in Italy, quiet and deserted. Max chased his target through the twisting alleys, his weapon Aqiza in-hand. The black metal of her rifle form shined in the sunlight, the bayonet gleaming like solid gold. The Kishin liked to call himself "the Fear." From a distance, it looked like an average tall guy. But a closer view of its face revealed the ugly truth, literally. Its face was a vile assortment of warts, scars, and poisonous disease. And man could it run.

The Fear dropped something from his pockets. Max's eyes widened as he remembered this trick from earlier. He jumped and ran along the side wall of the alley, but the grenades blew up just as he passed them, the force of the explosions launching him forward. Max rolled along the ground, but managed to balance himself and stood. He caught a glimpse of the Fear running into the next left turn. Max fired his gun behind him, the strong momentum shooting him in the right direction.

Max landed and saw the Fear at the end of the alley. He raised Aqiza up, carefully aimed, and _bam_! A shot went clean through the Kishin's leg, causing it to fall. Max shot downward, launching himself into the air, shot again to fly towards his prey, and stabbed the Fear in the back. It let out one last cry of pain, then condensed down into its glowing orb of a soul.

Max opened the chamber of his rifle. The Kishin Egg was sucked into the gun like dust to a vacuum. Then Max threw his weapon into the air, where it became enveloped in a red light. Aqiza Saika landed next to him in her human form. She was a tall, red-headed girl with dark red eyes behind red-framed glasses. She wore a red coat with black fur along the trim, mid-thigh length red shorts, and fuzzy, black and red boots. Ironically, her favorite color was blue.

His partner tilted her head in a questioning matter.

"You look troubled, Maxi," she said. Max hated that nickname, but he didn't have the heart to tell her to stop. "Something the matter?"

Max sighed. "How many souls does that make now?"

"…...fifteen."

"We're way behind the others. Last time I asked, Jarid said he and Krystal had over fifty."

Aqiza took off her glasses, pulled out a red cloth from her pocket, and began polishing the lenses. "That's true, but you know the old saying. 'Slow and steady wins the race.' You'll make me a Death Scythe before you know it."

Max suddenly remembered something. He asked Aqiza for their map and looked it over. There was a place he wanted to show Aqiza before they left Italy. She looked over his shoulder, but he moved the map away.

"It's a surprise."

His partner didn't look happy with that answer, but Max chose not to disclose any information. Finally, he found the location he was looking for. And not only that, it wasn't too far from where they were. Max folded up the map and gestured for Aqiza to follow him.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Aqiza hated secrets. Whenever someone hid something from her, she felt fidgety, like her nerves wouldn't let her rest until she uncovered the truth. She watched Max lead her through the streets. He wore a green army vest over a black t-shirt, dark green cargo shorts, and sneakers. She looked back and could still remember that kid she met on the streets a couple years ago.

Doctor Stein had requested Aqiza run an errand for him. All she had to do was buy some cleaning rags for his glasses. Simple right? As she made her way to the department store, a short, brown-haired, imp-looking boy rushed past her chased by three much bigger guys. The boy and his pursuers ran down the street, but the boy tripped. He tried to get up using only his right hand, for Aqiza could clearly see his left one was broken.

Aqiza stepped between the bullies and the boy. She couldn't turn her limbs into weapons like the others, but she couldn't just sit by and let these punks hurt someone. Suddenly, a loud voice from behind her boomed, "HEY!" It was Sid. At the very sight of the undead teacher, the bullies all fled in fear.

Aqiza knelt down next to the boy. She placed a hand on his arm, but he pulled away.

"Don't touch me!" he yelled. "I can take care of myself! And you!" he looked at Sid as if he recognized him. "I didn't ask for your help. I could've taken them!"

Aqiza touched his arm again. "Don't be stupid. Aside from your broken hand, you have cracked ribs. I can help ease the pain, but you need medical attention."

Aqiza closed her eyes and focused on the boy's injuries. Her fingers began to warm with her Soul Wavelength. When she pulled away, the boy seemed in less pain.

"Much better," she said. "Now, what's your name?"

He hesitated before replying. "Max. Max Cromwell."

Aqiza nodded. She turned to Sid. "Call Ms. Nygus and tell her we have a patient who needs immediate help." Sid nodded and opened a cell phone.

Max looked perplexed. "Why would you help me? I never asked for you to."

"Because you needed it," Aqiza said. "No man's an army. And you didn't have to ask. I made that choice for you."

"What's your name?"

"Aqiza."

"Thanks Aqiza."

And since that moment, the two were pretty much inseparable. Aqiza helped Max with his grades and Max helped her feel like she could do more than heal. He still tended to fly off the hook sometimes, but Aqiza was always there to keep him out of situations he couldn't handle. But now, heading to this surprise location, Aqiza felt a strange sense of danger.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Finally, their destination came into view: the old church Santa Maria Novella Basilica. Max had to admit, it looked cool architecture-wise. He knew Aqiza was into that stuff so he thought this would be perfect for her. They hadn't even entered yet and she seemed to be shaking with excitement.

Max pushed open the massive doors. The interior of the church shone with a purple light. The ceiling was so high, Max felt like he was going to fall looking up at it. On the back wall was a massive multicolored stained glass window. Aqiza couldn't keep still. She dashed all over the church, gawking at every detail and design. Max smiled when he suddenly heard footsteps behind him. He turned to see a man there.

"Beautiful building, isn't it?" the man said.

He appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He had a tall, light-brown Mohawk hairdo. He wore a white tank-top with an odd peacock feather design, and jeans with white paint splattered on them with a chain hanging from each pocket. In his hand was what looked like a sketchpad with a pencil in the binding.

"Yes, yes, such lovely architecture," he went on. He then looked at Aqiza and added, "but not quite as lovely as you, my dear." He held up his sketchpad. "Please, you have to let me draw your picture. It would make an excellent keepsake."

Aqiza's eyes scanned the man. Max knew that look. Whenever she met someone, Aqiza's mind did a thousand things at once in order to tell her everything about the person in question. Hesitantly, she accepted the man's offer. He held out a hand.

"Lucas Vega, my dear," the man introduced himself. "And you are?"

Aqiza gave her and Max's names and sat down. Lucas flipped through the pages of his book to find an available page. Max tried to get a glimpse of his other drawings. Oddly enough, Max thought he saw a few magical incantations on the paper. He had read somewhere that witches sometimes used such symbols to invoke powerful spells. Lucas didn't appear to be a witch…and Max couldn't sense any witch soul….

At last a black page appeared. Lucas slipped the pencil from its binding and began to sketch appearance with lightning-fast speed. In almost no time at all, Lucas had captured Aqiza's beauty with exact precision and detail. He carefully pulled the portrait out and handed it to Aqiza.

"That's amazing," Aqiza said.

Lucas bowed. "A thousand thanks, Ms. Aqiza. Oh, and one last thing. I'd like a copy for my personal collection."

The artist waved a hand over the picture. Slowly, a translucent copy of the drawing lifted itself off the page and attached to another blank paper in Lucas' book. Several of the magical symbols appeared around the new copy. That settled it…. but Aqiza beat Max to the punch.

"You're a witch!" she exclaimed.

Lucas sighed, as if he dreaded his title. "I guess you could say that. I do tend to dabble in the mystical arts. The technical term is 'warlock', though."

Aqiza dropped the drawing and entered her weapon form. Max caught the rifle and prepared to defend himself, aiming the gun at Lucas' head with one hand.

"So it's a fight you want?" the warlock muttered. "Like you could hurt me. If it's all the same to you, I'd like to avoid senselessly beating up a child."

Max had heard enough. He charged at the witch and swung his bayonet around. Lucas jumped backwards to avoid the blade, a look of utter boredom on his face.

"If you insist, then."

Lucas flipped to one of his drawings and placed the book on the ground. He raised his hands to his mouth, bit both his thumbs so hard they bled, and drew a circle around the book in his blood.

He clapped his hand together and yelled, "Summoning Art: Valkyrian Phoenix!"

The book rose into the air and transformed. It became a large, bird-shaped shadow that loomed over Lucas. Black tendrils shot from the shadow's torso. The vines wrapped around Lucas and lifted him toward the shadow. When Lucas' body made contact with it, there was a bright light. The light died down to reveal the monster Max was to fight. It was a white-colored falcon that was about fifteen feet tall. Its wings were jagged like long swords. Three spiked tails lashed around. It had a silver helmet on its head that covered its eyes and the top of its beak.

The bird opened its mouth and Lucas' voice boomed out: "hahahaHA! Behold the Valkyrian Phoenix, one of my personal favorite artworks!"

Max stared in awe at the creature. He didn't even notice it was attacking until Aqiza yelled, "Look out!"

Max rolled to the side to just avoid the weaponized tails came down and planted in the ground. He shot at the bird, but it dodged them with quick ease. Max shot at the ground to fly up on top of the bird's back. He grabbed the barrel of his gun and slammed the bayonet into the Phoenix's back. It let out a cry and took to the air. Max saw where it was flying.

"Aqiza, I'm sorry for what's about to happen!" he shouted.

"What?" she asked.

The bird flew directly through the stained-glass window, filling the air with rainbow shards. Max heard his weapon gasp in horror, but he couldn't worry about that right now. He was too busy hanging on for dear life as Lucas' creation soared over the buildings of Italy. It did a few spins and Max felt his stomach get queasy.

"Max, get him to go over there!"

Max saw what Aqiza meant. He managed to find a footing on the Phoenix's back and pulled hard on the rifle. The force caused the bird to turn its path towards a circular spot of land. Max guided his ride low enough to the ground so he could jump off. He kicked up dust as his feet hit the ground. He looked up to see the seats all around him. Aqiza had him bring the bird to the most fitting place to fight a monster. He was standing in the Colosseum.

The Valkyrian Phoenix screeched and dashed at Max. He managed to land a few shots off before it got so close he had to jump over it. He once again stabbed his weapon into the monster's back, this time letting loose a volley of bullets into the wound. With every shot, the Phoenix got lower and lower to the ground until it crashed. A cloud of dust erupted into the air. Max stood to his feet and looked to the stands.

"Aqiza I have to do it," he said.

"Do what?" she asked.

Max lifted his weapon and gestured to the empty stands. He yelled the words, "ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!"

Aqiza couldn't help but laugh. Max's victory was cut short though. From the cloud of dust, one of the bird's tails lashed out and wrapped around Max's body, squeezing the life out of him. Max heard Lucas laugh maniacally in the distance. He felt the darkness sinking in…

There was a loud crash and Max fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. He heard the man-witch Lucas yell, "Meddlesome zombie!" and the whipping around of wind. Max opened his eyes and saw his mentor looking over him, a combat knife in his hand.

"I had it covered. You didn't have to help me, Sid….," he groaned.

Sid helped him up and started moving him toward the Colosseum's exit. "Yeah I know. I got tired of waiting on you two to come back. Let's get you home."

.


	4. Chapter 4

_[Hey guys I would just like to apologize for the lack of a chapter last week. Technical difficulties and all that. So to compensate, I will try and upload two chapters this week. I will also try to stick to this pattern in the future in case of any other unforeseen mishaps. Once again I apologize and hope you continue to enjoy Soul Eater Type 2!]_

 **Chapter 4: The Making of a Knight**

It was a bright day, evening sunlight falling through the trees. The gravel crunched under Veronicka's feet as she wandered down the forest trail. Brittanny had to be around here somewhere…... The two of them had made an effort to try and memorize the entirety of these woods, making games of hide-and-seek like this more challenging. At this point though, Veronicka was tired and was ready to go back to their family's cabin. She had already found Nik and Darcy and they were probably growing impatient waiting on her.

About an hour passed. The sun was starting to set and there was still no sign of Brittanny. Veronicka decided to head back before it got too dark. Maybe her big sister had already gone back home? Veronicka sighed as she could already hear Brittanny gloating about her victory. She anticipated a full week of teasing.

Veronicka could not have been more wrong. Before the cabin was even in view, she heard the sirens blaring. She broke into a run until she reached the top of the hill where she saw it: her family's home swallowed whole by flames. An emergency helicopter was off to the side, and Veronicka saw her parents, Nik, and Darcy, but still no Brittanny. She ran over to her family and explained how she couldn't find her sister. Her father demanded a nationwide search for his missing daughter. For the next few years, the police searched frantically for Brittanny, but to no avail. They said there was no evidence of arson, nor were there remains of any kind…

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Hey, Vee."

The sound of Darcy's voice pulled Veronicka out of her stupor. She had been staring out the train's window, the orange lights of Death City glowing across the desert over which they were traveling. The warmness and brightness of the city reminded her of those flames from all those years ago. She couldn't help but think the city looked ablaze.

Veronicka looked at her partners. On the right next to the window sat Nikolai Tietov, Veronicka's self-appointed bodyguard. He wore an orange sweatshirt, black jeans, and combat boots. On his head sat an orange and white baseball cap. His long, shaggy orange hair fell over his eyes and across his shoulders. Despite his large frame, people claim that Nik was hard to notice most of the time due to his quiet nature. He might look threatening at times, but Veronicka knew he didn't mean much harm. Most of the time, anyway. His father had brought him along from Russia when he got a job working for Veronicka's family.

Darcy Gibbins sat nearest to the walkway between the aisles of seats, just to see if she could snag a few wallets to pass the time. Veronicka had come across this dark-skinned thief when she tried to rob Veronicka's family manor. Instead of getting upset, Veronicka decided to befriend the thief and allowed her to live in the mansion. Darcy wore a blue, X-shaped top, purple shorts, and sandals. Her purple hair always seemed to glow in the dark.

"Yes, what is it Darcy?" Veronicka replied.

"You alright? You look distracted."

Veronicka shook her head. "I am fine. I was just daydreaming."

Darcy shrugged and leaned back over the aisle just in time to snag a man's wallet from his back pocket. She giggled at her success, but Veronicka glared at her. Darcy sighed and got up to hand the man his belongings back.

"Maybe once we get to DWMA, we can finally meet author lady you like so much," Nik said with his thick accent.

Veronicka nodded. She had read all the books ever written by Maka Evans and considered the meister her idol. It would be the greatest honor to even be in the same room as her, let alone be a student studying under her. Veronicka's favorite line from the books was probably the most famous: _A sound soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body._ It meant so much to Veronicka, she had it engraved on the bracelet she always wore.

Darcy sat back down next to Nik. She looked sad because she had lost her score, but Veronicka knew it was for her own good. Veronicka had been trying to break Darcy's old ways of pickpocketing, but apparently some habits were harder to break than others. Veronicka gave Darcy a smile, and got a meager one back.

Suddenly, the train jerked around violently. The conductor's voice said from the intercom, "Apologies passengers for that movement. We seem to be having some minor technical difficulties with the train's handling systems, but I assure you it will be resolved shortly. Please remain seated and remain ca-"

The conductor was cut off by another violent jerk, this one worse than the last. The intercom clicked on again, but this time it let out a man's terrified shout. Veronicka had just enough time to see Nik stand up before the world turned sideways and everything went black.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nik coughed and opened his eyes. He managed to stand up, and tried to assess the situation. Off about fifty yards away was what remained of the train, now a crunched up wad of metal. He looked down where he had been crouching to see Veronicka and Darcy lying there, safe. Luckily he had reacted in time to protect them. In the last few seconds before the crash, Nik had grabbed Darcy by the collar of her shirt, wrapped his arm around Veronicka's waist, and launched the three of them through the window. He hardened his skin before the fall, and tucked the two girls into his chest in a sort of ball. He landed just as he heard the horrific sound of the train crashing.

Nik knelt down and shook his meister and fellow weapon. Veronicka was the first to wake. Nik hoped she wouldn't be angry with him for such a rough landing. He explained what happened and she stood. Darcy was just waking up when a loud screech echoed across the desert. Veronicka grabbed Darcy's hand and the thief automatically went into her weapon form. A blue crystalline guard covered Veronicka's left hand, a thin blue blade shaped like an icicle jutting out of it.

Veronicka looked at Nik. "Darcy and I will investigate whatever that was. Undoubtedly, it is what caused the crash. I want you to go through the wreckage and see if you can find any other survivors," she ordered.

Nik wasn't too comfortable with leaving Veronicka with just a rapier to defend herself. She needed a shield like him to keep her safe. It was his duty as her guard and servant.

"I'll be fine, Nik," Veronicka said, as if she was reading his mind. "You're the only one strong enough to pry open the metal to get inside. When you're finished, find us and we'll all work together."

Nik hesitated before nodding. He trudged off toward the train, hardened his fist, and punched a hole in the side. He would come back for her. Darcy had better take good care of her in the meantime.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Veronicka kept her sword ready as she followed the train to the engine car. Hopefully she could find some clues as to what happened here, as well as what had made that terrible shriek. She found the door to the engine and tried to turn the knob, only to find it locked from the inside. _What an odd design,_ she thought. She lifted Darcy's blade to the door and cut an X in the metal. With a few kicks, Veronicka knocked down the door and walked inside. A human body lied against the wall, a nasty cut across the chest. The man's blue uniform was ripped apart and stained with his blood. The poor conductor didn't stand a chance. Veronicka closed his still opened eyes, and turned her attention to the controls for the train. The control panel had claw marks all over it and holes that gaped in the metal. Veronicka lifted her hand to the holes and could feel heat. It was as if something melted right through it.

"What could have done this?" Darcy asked from inside her sword form.

"This train goes all over the country," the meister replied, flashing back to the map she saw at the train depot. "This makes it very likely that it could have driven through a MP at some point. Seeing as the conductor is the only one here, the train's engineer either got eaten whole, or we may be dealing with a victim of AMS."

Veronicka's investigation was cut off by a yell and a _clank_ of metal against metal. The meister gripped her sword tightly, channeled her Soul Wavelength into her feet, and sprinted out the door of the engine like a flash of lightning. She zoomed along the debris until she found the source of the combat. Her other weapon Nik was holding back a huge Kishin with his bare hands. He was defending a little girl and her mother who were trembling behind him. Veronicka ran to the parent and child and carried them away from the fighting. She ran back to see Nik throwing a chunk of debris at the Kishin, just to have it melt before making contact. A green, steamy liquid oozed from the Kishin's mouth, presumably acid. Veronicka held out her right hand and Nik took the hint. His body glowed orange and wrapped around Veronicka's right forearm. He became a diamond-shaped, orange and black shield that came to a bladed point over the hand.

Now that Veronicka could get a good look at the Kishin, her theory from before was proven correct. The Kishin appeared to be humanoid with pale skin and it wore an engineer's uniform. It had bone-like blades sprouting from its palms, elbows, and feet. Its eyes blazed red with golden pupils.

"I pity you," Veronicka said to the Kishin. "No one deserves this fate. At least allow me to put you out of your misery."

The Kishin yelled in defiance and lunged at Veronicka. She dashed to the right, faster than the eye could see. She ran up and bashed the monster with her shield, following up with a stab with her rapier. The Kishin screamed and backed away. It spat acid at her feet in attempt to keep her from moving. Veronicka flipped her sword to a back-handed grip and threw it past the Kishin. She jumped, dashed through the air and caught the blade, adding another stab the Kishin's back. It crossed blades with her, sparks flying through the air.

Veronicka looked the Kishin in its eyes. She could see the slightest bit of agonizing pain in them, almost like a cry for help. She felt sorry for it. The only thing she could do now was end its suffering. Veronicka broke the blade lock and did a low spinning slash with both her weapons. It screamed horribly, almost sounding human. It soon condensed into its small soul. It hovered there, throbbing like a heart cut out from someone's chest.

Veronicka's weapons returned to normal. Their meister pulled a cellphone from her pocket and dialed the number she was given from the DWMA. Soon a voice picked up on the other end. Veronicka recognized it as Sir Death the Kid, headmaster of the school.

"It looks like you will be late to your orientation, Miss McMillan," Kid said.

Amidst all the chaos, Veronicka had forgotten the reason she was on the train to begin with. She and her weapons were on their way to their first day at the Academy.

"Yes," she responded. "We faced some complications with the train."

"Clearly. I saw the crash and the battle through my mirror. If I'm not mistaken, that was an Unnatural Kishin, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it appeared to be so, sir."

Veronicka heard the headmaster grumble and sigh. "I will send a transport for you, as well as an emergency crew to aid the wounded."

"Right. We will try to find more victims in the meantime."

Veronicka closed her phone and rejoined her friends. They were flipping a coin, Veronicka guessed, to determine who got the Kishin Egg soul. It came up heads and Darcy leaped for joy. Nik picked up the coin and examined it.

"Two-headed coin does not count," he spat. He looked up though to see Darcy swallowing the soul whole.

Nik started to protest and the two began arguing as usual. Veronicka smiled. These two had become her family. She thought about the way the Kishin had looked at her. She wondered if he had family somewhere. She would have to make sure they were notified about what had become of him, and offer her most sincere condolences.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Darkness Returns**

Yo made a vow to himself after that day: try to avoid taking jobs from witches as much as freaking possible.

That day was supposed to go just as every day goes. Wake up, get ready for work, drive to the guild, take the assignment from Argus, DO the assignment, get payed, go home and go to bed. Little did he know that this job would change his life forever….and give him unwanted company.

Yo parked his motorcycle, but kept his helmet on. He opened the door to the guildand made his way to the bar which Argus stood behind, polishing a glass and stacking them properly. _La Guilde des Voleurs_ was the headquarters for the underground bounty hunting ring Argus ran. It passed itself off as a French family-owned restaurant, various pictures of Argus and his crew's multiple get-togethers from over the years. The old man was burly and rugged with long, tattooed arms that made him look like a gorilla. For some reason, he had an extra eye on his forehead, hence his street name, the Tri-Clops. Yo would never know how this ugly, fat, bum of a man became the head of the guild.

"G'day to ya," Argus said, trying to be friendly. "Sleep well?"

"As well as one with just three hours between missions," Yo replied, a tone of annoyance in his voice.

The old man laughed. "Yeah sorry about that, mate. Y'know how it is. Sometimes gremlins invade your house and steal your valuables."

Yo crossed his arms. "You got a job for me or not?"

Argus placed his glass down, delicately, and opened the door to the kitchen behind him. "Your client's waiting out there. Good luck, kiddo."

Yo pushed past the gang leader and walked through the kitchen. He found the backdoor that opened up to the alley and stepped outside. Standing by a dumpster was a tall, wooden manikin, like those one would pose on a rod for art. Yo thought this was some sort of joke, until the doll walked over and spoke to him in a female's voice.

"Hello," it said, its voice sounding like it was speaking through a two-way radio. "Are you the hunter-for-hire known as Yoshiya Uchiyaku?"

"Yo," he corrected.

The doll tilted its head. "Yes, hello. Is that your name, though?"

Yo sighed. He got this response a lot. "Yes, that's my name. Yoshiya's kind of too long for my taste. It's 'Yo' for short."

A sound that resembled laughter came from the doll. It even moved its head as if it were giggling. Yo felt his face blush and he decided to change the subject.

"Could we discuss the mission now?"

"My, my, how impatient. I suppose we could." The manikin curtsied like it was wearing a dress. "My name is Madison Marionette. I had other matters to attend to, so I couldn't meet with you in person. So I decided to send one of my creations here in my stead. I'm a witch, just so you know. Hopefully you don't discriminate."

"I don't care who or what my clients are," Yo stated, blankly, "As long as I get payed the promised amount, it doesn't matter."

"Good." The wooden figure held up a piece of paper. "Do you know what Black Blood is?"

Yo nodded. Who didn't know what Black Blood was? It was a weapon used by one of the Veterans of the Great Kishin War, Crona Gorgon. Apparently, Crona's mother melted down a weapon named Ragnarok and injected it into her child. She tried to make him a Kishin to use for her own malicious purposes. Unfortunately for her, another of the Veterans convinced Crona to join the DWMA and they over threw his mother. Crona grew up to be one of the greatest fighters in the DWMA, setting his place in the Hall of Legendary Heroes. Sadly, the swordsman was killed about a year ago by a mysterious assassin that was never identified. The cause of death was determined to be poisoning.

"You see, when Crona died, the Black Blood still remained alive inside of his body," Madison's voice continued. "Therefore, the Reaper decided to use an ancient spell to extract the Blood. He entrusted it to Franken Stein, the head of the Research and Development division, to seal inside in the Reaper Vault for safe-keeping. But…."

"Let me guess," Yo stepped in, "instead of sealing it away, Stein kept it for experimentation."

"You're a clever one."

"Not really. Stein has a reputation for being off his rocker. It was kind of an easy assumption."

The doll nodded. "On this paper is the address for Stein's laboratory. I would like you to break in and steal the container of Black Blood. When, or I guess I should say 'if', you return, we will discuss your payment."

Yo took the paper. "Consider it done." He walked down the alley, found his bike, and started his way to the address.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Could this even be called living? Body melted down, then brought back as some kind of parasite. When the host dies, he leaves the parasite behind to writhe around within the body like a bundle of nerves, only to be ripped out and put inside a jar. Then, after hearing it was just going to be sealed away to live out its existence in utter seclusion and boredom, the parasite's prison is stolen by a mad doctor to be subjected to some of the worst experiments imaginable. Day in and day out, electric shocks and injections, screams and laughter. And now here it sat, in the dark room where it was kept until the next experiment. After a full year of the torture, the parasite knew one thing for certain:

When it finally found a way out of here

it was gonna kill that Screwhead.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Yo brought his bike to a halt about a block away from Stein's lab. He stopped at the gate to take in the facility. It looked pretty much like Yo had imagined, like an old monster story come to life. Stitches covered the entirety of the building. A mouse covered in stitching approached Yo and sniffed at his boot. He picked the lock to the front door and stepped inside. He was greeted by a room with a desk at the far wall. An old-fashioned computer sat on it, the screen glowing white and blank. On the right side of the room was a table with beakers, microscopes, and other pieces of science equipment. An open door sat on the left, and Yo could see other lab technology inside.

Yo pressed a button on the side of his helmet. A scanner turned on in the visor, analyzing the layout of the building. Yo looked around and saw something in that other room. He entered and activated his helmet's night vision. He saw cabinets filled with equipment, several test tubes filled with various glowing chemicals. A painting of a middle-aged couple was pinned on the wall. Yo saw something behind the picture with his visor. He carefully lifted the painting from its mount and saw what the hidden object was. A small, metal safe with a glowing green keypad sat inside the wall.

The hunter pulled a glove from his pocket and put it on. He held his hand to the keypad and waited a moment. The glove began to glow orange. After a few more seconds, the safe beeped and clicked. Yo grabbed the handle and pulled it open. Inside were several different things that Yo actually couldn't tell what they were. One looked like a glass diamond with a red dot inside. Another was a blue cube with golden pieces on the corners. And in the very center of the compartment was a jar filled with solid black liquid. Yo grabbed it and closed the safe. He placed the portrait back on its bearing and started to make his way to the exit.

The front door had just met Yo's hand when a voice behind him said, "Going so soon?"

Yo turned to see a face had appeared on the desk computer's screen. It was of an elderly man with a gray beard and ragged gray hair. He had two stitched up scars across his face, crossing to make an X. A lit cigarette hung from his mouth. A pair of round glasses sat on his face, glowing as if he were the one looking at the screen.

"You really should make an appointment," the face said. "I would have had Marie make us some tea."

"Doctor Stein I presume?" Yo asked.

A hand grabbed the back of Yo's collar and threw him outside. Before Yo could get up, his attacker kicked him up against a pillar. Weirdly, Yo didn't slide down the pillar, but instead remained where he had made contact.

Professor Stein approached the hanging bounty hunter. He wore a patchwork lab coat over a white shirt and white pants. A giant screw was lodged straight through his head. The doctor grabbed the head of the screw and gave it a turn, creating an awful creaking noise.

"Soulthread sutures," he said. "You won't be able to move until I decide to let you go. Now what were you after?" Stein reached into Yo's pocket and pulled out the jar of Black Blood. After a minute of silence, Stein said, "I see. I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

"Where would I go?!"

Stein walked back inside the lab. Yo sat on the support beam for an hour, tired from struggling. A tall woman approached him. She had long, gray hair and wore a long black and yellow dress. She had an eyepatch over her left eye. She reached up and pulled Yo's helmet off of his head, causing his long blonde hair to fall around his face. The woman lifted a cup to Yo's lips and made him drink. The tea was warm and sweet to the taste.

She smiled kindly and said, "I thought you might be thirsty."

Yo looked at the woman with desperation. "Give it to me straight, lady. Is he going to kill me?"

Instantly the woman's expression shifted to one of sadness. The professor exited the lab and came towards them, a large suitcase in one hand.

"Go back inside, Marie," Stein ordered. "I don't want you to watch this again."

The woman looked genuinely concerned for Stein. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Marie nodded sadly and went back inside the laboratory. Stein placed the case on the ground and opened it. Inside was a syringe the size of a sword. Stein raised a fist and, faster than Yo's eyes could follow, punched him in the midsection. The pain was so intense, Yo couldn't help but yell and scream in agony.

Stein said, "I just hit you with a direct burst of my Soul Wavelength. Right now, your internal organs a bleeding profusely. You'll be dead in minutes. Unless…...," Stein flicked his wrist and Yo fell from the pillar. "my experiment is successful."

"Damn you!" Yo yelled.

"I can keep you from dying. Just so you know, this technique had yet to have positive results. If it does work, however, you'll be up on your feet in no time."  
Yo was desperate. He couldn't run. He was completely at Stein's mercy. He coughed up blood.

"FINE DO IT!"

The mad doctor forced the needle of the syringe into Yo's heart. For a moment, he felt nothing. Yo wondered if he was dying, his consciousness slipping. Then, all at once, a cool relief settled over his body. Although he still found he couldn't move. Suddenly, he felt something in his right hand. Yo moved his eyes over to see a six-foot-long black sword with a silver guard. The blade resembled a broadsword, except one side was serrated like a combat knife. Thoughts filled Yo's mind, as if he had suddenly gained a new insight on life. It was like a new conscience was being integrated into his brain. And right now the conscience was screaming, "KILL, KILL, KILL THE SCREWHEAD!"

The blade moved on its own, dragging Yo along for the ride. It sliced at Stein with a murderous intent Yo had never felt before. The old man still had some skills apparently, for he managed to avoid all the blade's strikes.

"Remarkable," he said. "It looks like you were actually able to resonate with the Black Blood."

The sword disappeared from Yo's hand and was replaced with a strong tugging sensation in Yo's back. It felt like something was ripping itself out of Yo's skin, trying desperately to escape. Yo looked over his shoulder to see a horrific sight. Growing out of his back was another being. It wore black ninja garb with silver bracelets and a long silver scarf. It had the head of a jackal with a white diamond across its snout. Its eyes were white with small X-shaped pupils. Its hands were clawed like the monster it clearly was.

It screamed at the sky a word Yo had never heard before. "ARONDIGHT!"  
"W-what the hell are you?!" Yo panicked.

"No time to explain!" the creature snapped. It turned to Stein and exclaimed, "You're the first on my list, Screwhead! I'll tear you to pieces and feast on your soul!"

Professor Stein took off his glasses. "Go right ahead, then."

The monster went back inside Yo's body and became a sword again. The blade rushed at Stein, but the doctor made no move. Just as the sword got close enough to stab Stein, it stopped dead in its tracks.

"W-why can't I kill you?!" the sword screamed.

"Failsafe." Stein put his glasses back on. "Your DNA will now detect my biological signature and will physically restrict you from causing me any harm."  
The sword disappeared again and howled in rage. Two dragon-like wings sprang from Yo's back and launched him into the air. He screamed in fear as he was carried over the city like an eagle's dinner.

 _[Finally we are out of the prologues! How will Yo deal will his newfound partner? Will Jarid make Krystal the greatest Death Scythe ever? Will Max ever be less stupid? All these questions and more will be revealed later! Until next time, on Dragon Ball-…. I mean uh Soul Eater Type 2!]_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Union**

Jarid twirled his scythe around to block the dozens of projectiles flying at him. He swung at his attacker, only to have his blade blocked by another of gold. His opponent shoved him backwards, then continued to wail at him with a flurry of strong slams. This guy had the audacity to challenge Jarid in the courtyard of the DWMA, his own home turf. There was no way he was going to lose here. Jarid locked their weapons together and looked at the person he was fighting, looks of rage in both of their eyes.

"Why do you have to be so damn annoying?!" Jarid snapped. "Sid's just trying to help you, moron!"

Max broke away, did a quick spin, and fired another volley of shots. Jarid blocked the attacks, and guarded against a swing by the bayonet on Max's rifle.

"Shut up!" Max yelled back at him. "You don't get it! Just leave me alone and mind your own business!"

Jarid shifted his weapon until Max's was lodged between the blade and the end of the staff. With one quick twist, he forced the rifle from his rival's hands and sent it skittering across the pavement. Max sprinted, ducked down into a roll, and retrieved his gun. He then, head down, ran back towards Jarid. Both meisters threw their weapons up, the blades aimed at each other's throats. If Max shot Jarid, the scythe meister could easily lob off his head in the process. The situation wouldn't be any better were Jarid to attack first.

Jarid grinned, maniacally. "You'd better hope there's cupcakes in hell, comrade."

Max was first to break as usual. He slowly lowered his weapon, laughing like a madman. Soon, Jarid cracked up too and gave Max a fist-bump. The weapons reverted to their human forms and stood off to the side. Krystal looked unamused.

"You guys are morons," she said.

Aqiza made no comment. She simply readjusted her glasses that had started to slip down her nose. The school's bell resounded from inside the building. Krystal grabbed Jarid's wrist and led him inside, knowing he and Max would probably skip class to fight some more had she not interfere. With no one to fight, Max shrugged and followed. The interior of the school was designed like a complex maze. You were lucky if you could ever get to class on time.

When they finally found their classroom, Jarid opened the door to find Mrs. Evans already giving her lecture for the day. She looked at them, slightly annoyed.

"You four are gaining a reputation for being late."

Krystal sighed and bowed to her mother. "I'm sorry, Mom. The guys wanted to get in some early morning training."

Maka shook her head. "It's fine, dear. You all actually got a call to come to the Death Room a few minutes ago."

Jarid raised an eyebrow. "Headmaster Kid wants to see us?"

"Yes. He said it was important so I suggest that you hurry. You're excused so go on."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

About a half an hour later (again, thanks to the school's questionable design) the crew located the entrance to the Death Room. The huge room seemed like a completely different world. A blue sky with silver clouds covered the ceiling and walls. A barren field was the floor, stretching out as far as the eye could see, dotted with hundreds of cross-shaped rods. A path led from the door to the central platform, which held the Headmaster's throne and the all-seeing mirror. Red guillotines hung over the path as decoration.

Once they reached the platform, Sir Kid turned his chair around to face them. "Good morning, students," he greeted them, blankly.

They returned the greeting. "What is it you wanted to see us about, Uncle Kid?" Krystal asked. "Was Max peeping again?"

"It was one time! Let it go, woman!" Max yelled.

The Headmaster held up a hand to silence them. "Before I begin…., could you all please switch around the way you're all standing? Boys in the center, girls on the outer sides?"

The students all raised eyebrows, but reluctantly did as he asked. "Thank you," he said once they were repositioned. He raised his hands in peace-signs. "Now you all are lined up in a more, symmetrical fashion. Everything must be symmetrical in order to achieve perfection."

Jarid saw Max squint. "But, Headmaster," he put in, you're not symmetrical. It looks like a button on your right sleeve has been ripped off."

Immediately stood and observed his sleeve. His eyes widened and he lowered his head. He walked behind the throne, and Jarid could hear the sound of him falling to the ground. Krystal took the liberty of giving Max a punch to the head.

"You idiot!" she shouted. "You know Headmaster Kid has a problem!"

"I'm sorry! I forgot!"

The sound of electricity emanated from the magic mirror. Lord Death slowly crawled his was out of it, his large body struggling. When he managed his way out, the reaper raised a foam-finger-like hand.

"Heya! What's up, my young homies?" he greeted in his silly voice. "I thought you all would be on your mission by now."

"Mission?" Aqiza wondered.

"Sorry, Lord Death, but _someone_ said something they shouldn't have," explained Jarid, pointing a thumb at Max.

Death seemed to just notice his son pouting behind the throne. "Ah, I see. Well then allow me to explain. Have you all heard of Unnatural Kishins?"

"I have," Krystal said.

"Very good. Then please elaborate for your friends."

Krystal smoothed out her shirt and cleared her throat. "Thirty years ago, the Great Kishin War devastated the world by bringing about the most powerful threat ever known, the Kishin Asura. But thanks to the work of the DWMA, he was defeated and, supposedly peace was restored. Little did they know at the time, Asura's threat wasn't completely destroyed. When he was alive, he had spread his madness all over the world, causing all sorts of chaos. When he was defeated, even though he was gone, small pockets of his madness remained in the world. It's kind of like residual radiation after a nuclear bombing. Whenever a human enters one of these 'Madness Pockets', they are exposed to madness and run the risk of developing 'Asuran Madness Syndrome.' It's a disease that forces a human into a Kishin, rather than the normal process of eating human souls.

First, the disease manifests itself as a cold. Then, the victim's skin becomes grey and they have fits of rage. After that, the eyes become red with orange pupils, and bone-like spears protrude from the skin. At that point, the human's mind is corrupted by madness, their soul has become a Kishin Egg, and that is what is called an Unnatural Kishin. The mutation of the human varies between victims, and it gets worse the longer they live."

Max shivered. Aqiza covered her mouth in fear. "That's horrible. I've never heard of such a thing…."

Jarid put his hands in his pockets. "Actually you have. That's what happened to my parents and my brother, Josh."

Everyone looked at him in shock. Aqiza hugged him and Max put his hand on Jarid's shoulder.

"One in particular is causing some worries for my son and I," Lord Death went on. "His name is Hannibal Crane. He's currently running amok in Paris, France. Another team is stationed there. The meister is quite experienced in dealing with these types of Kishins. I would like the four of you to meet up with them, and work together to bring down this threat. Can you do that?"

Jarid nodded. He felt a personal duty to kill this Kishin. He didn't wasn't anyone else to get hurt by it.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

They spent the entirety of their day in Paris looking for the meister Lord Death talked about, all to no success. Once the sun started to go down, they decided to check out the Eiffel Tower. Aqiza was running all around, crying marvels and compliments about the Tower's design. Jarid and Krystal found a bench and relaxed while Max tried to calm his partner down.

"You okay?" Krystal asked. "I wasn't thinking when I was going on about UKs. I know how tough it is for you…"

Jarid shook his head. "It's fine. I'm okay."

Krystal looked at Max and Aqiza. Aqiza was brilliant, beautiful, intuitive. Why she dealt with a hothead like Max was beyond her.

"I'm sorry," she said to Jarid. "I never asked you how you felt about that day. I should have asked."

Jarid touched her shoulder. "Look, it's okay. I don't like talking about it. I don't like wearing the 'my fam tried to eat me' t-shirt. You have nothing to be sorry about."

Before Krystal could say anything else, Max ran up to them, Aqiza in her gun form in his hands. "Hey! Aqiza said she can sense the Kishin's nearby! Get ready!"

Jarid took Krystal's hand. She summoned that warm feeling inside and transformed.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid propped the scythe on his shoulder. "So where is it?"

"Here it comes!" Aqiza yelled.

Suddenly, Jarid felt a series of rumbles in the ground under his feet. A loud roar echoed as a huge monstrosity burst into the round plaza. It was about fifteen feet tall and looked like a fusion between a lion, a gorilla, and a boar. It ran on all fours, grey fur whipping around in the wind. Its head was pig-like with sharp tusks growing from the sides of its mouth. A long tail flicked around behind it. Dreadful claws grew from each of its huge feet. As expected, its eyes were the red and gold of an Unnatural Kishin. Jarid needed to come up with a plan. This target looked powerful and they needed to be careful with their strategy.

"Max I need you to-," Jarid started. He looked over to see Max was already charging the monster. He lifted his rifle and fired nonstop at Hannibal Crane. Soon a cloud of dust rose up over the beast.

Max stopped firing to observe his work. He smiled and started walking back toward Jarid, as to gloat over his victory. Only to shut down his high, Hannibal charged out of the cloud, fury and rage in his eyes. Jarid leaped into the air and hit the Kishin in the head with the bladeless end of his scythe, redirecting it so it wouldn't crush Max. Max turned around and jumped in surprise.

He cleared his throat and still acted confident. "I had it covered!"

The Kishin came back around for another charge. The two meisters leaped over it, all the while pelting it with bullets and scythe-slashes. After a few spark-scattering blows, Jarid heard Krystal scream in pain. He back away and looked at her reflection in the blade.

"What's wrong?!" he asked, panicked.

His weapon panted. "His hide is too hard. It's like hitting pure diamond!"

"There's gotta be a weak spot somewhere!" Max shouted, jumping backwards to dodge a sudden wave of blue fire shooting from the Kishin's mouth. It began to repeatedly attack Max until it backed him against a building. Jarid started to run to help, but someone beat him to the punch. A streak of gold bolted past him, faster than anything he'd ever seen. The blur jumped up and hit the Kishin in the jaw so hard, it sent the beast sprawling across the opening.

The ally landed on the ground between Jarid and Max. She was a tall, blonde girl with piercing green eyes. She was wearing a yellow tank-top, orange bell-bottomed pants, and running shoes. In her left hand was a blue rapier with a purple guard, and in her right was a bladed, orange and black shield.

"Who the hell are you?!" Max demanded.

"No time," the stranger said. "Right now, we have to kill this thing."

Krystal's voice rang from the scythe. "Do you have any idea how? Its skin is too thick to cut."

The knight smiled. "On the back maybe. However, I seem to remember hearing somewhere that boar's have soft underbellies. Do you think that applies to giant, demon boars?"

"It's worth a shot." Jarid thought up a quick plan. It was crazy, but it might just work. He explained the plan to the other meisters and they nodded in agreement.

The blonde was up first. She ran with incredible speed, closing the gap between her and Hannibal in almost no time. She delivered a kick to the pig's snout, stunning it. She delivered another blow upward to get the Kishin reeling back. She took the opportunity to drive her rapier through one of its palms, and into the ground below. Hannibal reached over with its other paw to free itself, but the knight stabbed it with her shield's end. By the time her work was finished, the Kishin had been practically crucified to the ground.

Then it was Max's turn. He jumped over the beast, delivered a few shots to the gut, and landed over its head. He grabbed his gun with both hands and propped it under the neck of Hannibal, choking him.

Jarid's turn. He lifted his scythe with both hands and he and Krystal yelled the words that meisters and weapons were most feared for.

"LET'S GO, SOUL RESONANCE!"

Jarid felt his soul connect with Krystal's and together they yelled in defiance. Krystal's blade grew larger, turned blood red, and grew three blades along the edge that resembled a shark's fins. A red dragon's eye emblazoned the blade. It was…

"DRAGON FANG!" Jarid roared.

He jumped over Hannibal Crane and slashed horizontally with his giant weapon, ripping through the soft flesh of the underbelly. The Kishin screamed in pain, then shrunk down into its Kishin Egg.

The weapons all returned to normal form. The blonde girl's stood next to her: a giant guy clad in orange, and a thin girl with purple hair.

Max suddenly got angry and started yelling at the ally. "Who the hell do you think you are? We could've taken that guy!"

She looked over Max, almost disgusted. "Such a vulgar mouth. Would it kill you to be civilized?"

Max looked like he might charge her, but Aqiza grabbed him by the collar and pulled him away, apologizing all the while.

The knight crossed her arms. "I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Veronicka McMillan. This is Nik and Darcy."

"Pleasure to be meeting you," the large boy said.

"Hey!" added the purple-haired girl.

Jarid introduced himself and the others. Before Veronicka could answer, Jarid's phone rang. He picked it up when he recognized the number.

"What's up, Headmaster?"

Kid's voice said, "I see you all have been acquainted. Veronicka, Nikolai, and Darcy are new students at the Academy. I hope to see you all getting along well. I have high hopes for the lot of you."

Kid hung up before Jarid could say anything. He looked at Veronicka. She gave off an air of confidence and analytical intelligence. Jarid felt she would be a valuable asset to the DWMA and hoped she could be a good friend. He held out a hand to her.

"Welcome to the DWMA," he said, as if this encounter was a sort of initiation for her.

Veronicka smiled. "Thank you." She shook his hand, and the seven walked back to the airport to wait for another terrifying plane ride from Sid.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: An Eventful Evening (Part 1)**

Max often had bad dreams, but the ones he got that night were especially disturbing.

In the first, he was standing in the DWMA courtyard. It appeared to be twilight, the sky orange and the sun drifting lazily over the horizon. He looked off into the distance and gasped at what he saw. Before him was a massive army of Kishins, each horrific and disgusting in their own ways. Four of them carried a black throne made of stone. On which sat a young girl, probably around seven years old, with solid black hair. The whites of her eyes was red instead, and contained black slits for pupils. She flicked a hand toward the sky and a violent whistling noise came from the school. Max turned around to see a huge black orb engulfed in black flames fall from the sky, and crash directly into the DWMA, consuming it and everyone inside completely.

The scene shifted to a trail that led into a forest. Max stood at the entrance, the trees towering over him. Deep inside he could barely make out the silhouettes of two people. Max stepped closer to get a better look at them until he recognized them. It was Jarid and Krystal, standing with their heads down, their backs to Max. He tried to call out to them, but there was no sound. The two began to turn around, and what Max saw almost made him want to cry. He screamed instead. On their faces were maniacal smiles, and each bore the Three Eyes of Asura.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Aqiza held the sheers with the upmost precision. So far, she had been successful in her endeavors. Only a few more inches until the blades could properly sever her target's throat. She carefully moved them closer to their mark…. closer….

"Hey! I'm awake!"

Aqiza unwillingly lobbed off one of her roses entirely, missing the weed by a mile. Part of her wanted to lash out and scream at Max for messing her up, but she kept her composure. She picked up the severed flower, placed it behind her ear, and forced a smile.

"About time you woke up," she said, trying to stay kind.

Max stretched, grabbed an apple from the kitchen and slumped down on the couch. "Mornin'. So what's in our schedule for today?"

"We're supposed to meet Jarid and Krystal at Joe's Place later for dinner with Veronicka and her partners."

"Do we have to? I'm not the biggest fan of theirs…"

Aqiza gave him "the stare". She had been practicing this look ever since the day she witnessed it being used by Doctor Stein. A smile that was kind of enough, but using the eyes to give off a menacing aura and strike a feeling of discomfort in whomever the victim may be. Immediately, a bead of sweat went down Max's head.

"Or… I-I guess we could get dinner. S-suddenly I'm really hungry."

Aqiza nodded and finished her pruning. "Oh delightful. Then go take a shower and get ready. We leave in about half an hour."  
Max blinked. He looked at the clock and realized it was already late in the day. He dropped his apple and took off towards the bathroom. Aqiza smiled to herself, proud of her work. Getting Max to behave was very rare. The flowers looked nice too.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Max could make out the entrance to Joe's down the street. It was a fancy little restaurant and dance club that acted as a local hangout and study place for DWMA students. Max was surprised to see Jarid and Krystal standing outside in their work attire. Jarid, as the cook, wore a red vest over a black shirt, black pants, black shoes, and an apron. Krystal wore a typical waitress' outfit. Max couldn't help but think about how much Jarid probably liked coming to work just to see her in that.

"Why are you guys out here?" Aqiza asked.

Jarid scratched his cheek. "Sorry guys, but we have to work. Mr. Buttataki had to step out to take care of something, so we're stuck running the place."  
"As usual," Krystal added. "Where do you think he goes all the time?"

Jarid shrugged. He opened the door and let Max and Aqiza inside. Krystal led them to a table where Veronicka and one of her partners, Darcy, sat. Aqiza bowed slightly to the swordswoman.

"Hey you guys!" she chirped. "Before we start our evening, Max would like to apologize for the way he acted back in Paris."

Max knew he had better do what Aqiza said. He reluctantly grumbled something under his breath.

"What was that? I don't think they heard you." Aqiza firmly grabbed Max's ear, keeping a smile on her face.

The pain inflicted upon him was almost unbearable. Those sharp red nails dug deep into Max's ear, sending an excruciating wave of OUCH up his head.

"Ow! Okay, OKAY! I'm sorry!" he yelped.

Veronicka grinned. "It's quite alright. It did not bother me anyway. I apologize for my little spat as well."

Darcy laughed. "You're so full of crap, Vee! You were going on for like an hour yesterday about how rude he acted!"

Veronicka glared at her, and the group giggled. The rest of the dinner went pretty smoothly. Krystal served the food which was delicious as always. Jarid had an undeniable talent when it came to cooking. Max kinda hoped he would start his own restaurant one day…and let Max have a good percent the profits of course.

The group spent the evening talking about their various adventures. Veronicka talked about how she had learned to move so quickly in battle. She would channel her Soul Wavelength along the bottoms of her feet, sliding her along the ground like an ice skater. She invented the technique to catch a Kishin called the Highway Killer who used his high speed car for dozens of hit-and-run murders. Aqiza took it upon herself to talk about an adventure they had went on about a year ago. Max wanted to find the Legendary Holy Sword Excalibur. Max's face cringed just hearing the name.

Veronicka's eyes widened after Aqiza told her about their last solo mission. "So there IS such thing as a male witch? I thought that was just a myth."

"Apparently it's the real deal," Max answered. "He wasn't too tough."

Darcy laughed again. "I bet he got picked on in school!"

Another hour of laughter and reminiscence passed by. They were interrupted by the jingling of keys. Max turned to see Jarid and Krystal standing at the door to the restaurant in their normal clothes. They took the hint and rose to leave the establishment. Once outside, Max began stretching his arms and legs. Veronicka looked at him oddly.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Max dropped down to do some pushups. "Just getting ready for your final entrance exam."

A voice with a Russian accent said, "What do you mean?"

Max looked up to see Veronicka's other weapon partner, Nik, standing there. He could have sworn that giant hadn't been there before.

"When did you get here?"

Nik crossed his arms and grumbled, "I've been here entire time."

"Well… anyway you all still have one last thing to do before I accept you as members to the DWMA." Max held out his hand to Aqiza, as if waiting for her.

His partner adjusted her glasses and sighed. "Not this again…"

"Yes, this again. Transform now, please."

Aqiza sighed again, but reluctantly morphed into her assault rifle form. Max pointed the bayonet at Veronicka and smiled. "If you want to be part of our team, you first have to beat me in a fight!"

The knight squinted her eyes, intensely. At first, Max thought she would just insult him and deny his challenge. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time. He excited to see what she could do, though. If she were to work with them, he needed to know what she was capable of.

Nik stood in front of his meister. "You make me laugh, little man. Lady Veronicka has never been beaten in battle. If you fight her, you will surely be defeated."

"The big lug's right," Darcy added in. "She's an amazing fighter. You'll be lucky if you can even land a hit on her."

Max snapped, "I don't care! This is happening, now. Jarid did the same thing, but he only got lucky when he won. I've gotten better since then, so my win's almost assured!

Veronicka's look hardened. "Fine then, Max. I accept your challenge."

She reached out to her partners and they both transformed. Jarid and Krystal found a nearby bench and decided to watch. Max started by firing a quick volley of shots. Veronicka lifted her shield to block them. While her guard was distracted, Max used the recoil of a downward shot to fly above her. He soared down, his golden blade falling down in an arc. His opponent switched her sword into a backhanded grip and blocked the attack.

Then she revealed another ability of her weapons. She aimed the end of her shield at a nearby building. Max heard a _click_ and the blade launched from the shield, a metal cord following it, and it impacted in the wall of the building. Veronicka broke the lock, jumped upward, and another button clicked. The cord began to retract, pulling her along with it, very quickly. Max received a cut across the shoulder as Veronicka dashed past.

Max jumped away. Veronicka landed, flicked a wrist, and the blade of the shield retracted back onto her arm. She was good, and full of surprises. Max wasn't done just yet, though. He called upon the tugging feeling in his gut, and charged at the knight. He could actually see the energy flowing around him, his Wavelength sparking. If he could manage to hit her, he could do some serious damage.

There was no such luck. He happened to blink and she was gone, so he wound up hitting nothing but air.

"Yoo-hoo."

Max turned to see Veronicka sitting between Jarid and Krystal on the bench.

"It's kind of adorable that you actually think you can hit me with something like that," she said, smartly.

Max's grip on the rifle tightened. He dashed at the three, lunging the bayonet at them. Jarid and Krystal yelled and dived to each side. Veronicka slashed with her rapier in defense. The two meisters traded blow for blow, neither one backing down for anything. Max crossed his weapon upward, pulled the trigger and used the downward recoil to break the guard, leaving Veronicka open for a second. He took the chance, and actually managed to land a cut across her arm. She gave him a speedy kick to the abdomen, sending him sprawling across the street.

"I'm ready to end this," he said. "We're going to make this a real fight… with Soul Resonance!"

Jarid and Krystal stood up in shock.

"Since when can you use Soul Resonance?!" Jarid asked. "You guys always had trouble with it. Why didn't you tell us?"

Aqiza giggled, almost nervously, from within her rifle form. "We just needed some time to ourselves to practice is all."

"Enough talk," Max interrupted. "Let's do it!"

Together with his partner, Max yelled, "Let's go, SOUL RESONANCE!"

He felt his soul blend with Aqiza's. The two of them had worked too hard on this technique to have it fail now. He held out his right hand, holding the rifle, tightly. It began to glow with a blinding golden light. The light crept up his arm, eventually climbing up his neck until it reached his left eye. The light faded, revealing the masterpiece. The gun had fused with Max's arm, the barrel changing from an assault rifle to that of a high-caliber sniper rifle. The bayonet had grown longer, one end almost reaching the ground, the other stretching past his elbow. A blue glass screen covered his left eye.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he asked, confidently. "This is called Galatine!"

A look of intrigue actually went across Veronicka's face. "Interesting. You may consider me impressed, Max."

"Thanks. You're not too bad yourself. Unfortunately for you though, this is over!"

"Don't be so sure. You're not the only one with a unique Soul Resonance."

Veronicka removed her shield from her arm. She then placed the sword inside the straps so the blade went along the shield's. She repeated the chant Max had yelled to summon her ultimate technique. She threw the weapons into the air above her and they glowed a bright white. When they came back down, they had fused together into a huge, bright green javelin-like weapon that floated over the ground in front of the meister. Veronicka stepped onto the floating weapon and began to ride it around like a hover board.

"Behold, the weapon of your downfall. Sky Shredder."

Max smiled and nodded. "Bring it!"

He fired a dozen different shots form his gun-arm, none of them aimed at Veronicka at all. At first, the floating knight seemed confused, but then the sounds of bullets ricocheting around caught her attention. She kick-flipped her weapon around in a circle just in time to block the shots. That was the power of Galatine. The screen on Max's eye was an automatic targeting system. All he had to do was lock onto a target and fire. The system would launch the bullets in such a manner that they would ricochet in just the right way to find the target. It could also predict an opponent's attacks. So long as Max knew when his target was, he could always hit it, and avoid or block its attacks.

Veronicka leveled her ride after guarding against his attack. She dashed up and maneuvered the javelin around to slash at Max. He brought up his long bayonet to block each strike. Max saw an opening and lunged forward. Veronicka kicked her weapon up and spun it around Max's attack in a horizontal fashion. So when his attack reached her, her weapon twisted around it in such a way, it flipped Max over. He landed on his rear, and Veronicka hovered over him. Max tried to stand up, but his Soul Resonance forcedly shut down and he immediately felt his muscles get weak. Aqiza transformed back into human form and helped him up.

Veronicka's weapons returned to normal and she asked, "What happened?"

Aqiza looked sad. "To be honest… we haven't perfected Galatine yet. It still puts too much stress on Max's body to have it on for too long. That fight was the longest we've been able to hold it for."

Max punched the ground as hard as he could, which wasn't very hard with his current level of strength. "Damn it! We were so close…"

Darcy laughed. "You really had us going there for a minute. I had fun! What'd you think, big guy?"

Nik stayed quiet, but nodded.

Veronicka held out a hand. "That was a good match."

Max still felt angry, but he shook her hand. She had earned his respect.

Suddenly, their friendly moment was cut off by a man's scream in the distance. The students all ran in the direction of the scream in hopes of helping. They found the source of the yelling in a nearby alley. Deep in it sat the wounded body of a man. He was tall with graying ash-blonde hair. Dozens of swords laid all around him. A nasty, bloody cut ran across his right eye. A wound on his side soaked his shirt with blood. He was barely breathing. Jarid, Krystal, Max, and Aqiza ran over to him and Krystal started crying. Aqiza lifted her hands and began to try and heal him. Jarid took out his phone and called the DWMA for help.

"Who is that?" Veronicka asked.

It had just occurred to Max that she didn't know who this was. She had only just been accepted, so she wouldn't have had the chance to have a class of his yet.

"He's a teacher at the Academy," Max said. "His name is Mifune."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: An Eventful Evening (Part 2)**

Veronicka's thoughts were cut off by the sound of a motorcycle starting and roaring away. She grabbed her weapons' hands and pulled them along.

She looked at the others, who were trying desperately to help their teacher named Mifune. "That might be the culprit. I am going after him."

Before they could argue, she sped away. She shot Nik's grappling blade to the top of a building and climbed up, giving her a lay of the land. She ran along the rooftops until she heard the motorcycle again. She spotted it heading towards one of the exit gates of the city. Veronicka dashed forward, eventually catching up and running beside the attacker. She jumped, letting the momentum carry her forward, and gave the cyclist a firm spinning kick to the ribs, sending them flying off the bike.

The masked attacker crashed against the pavement a few yards away. They crawled to their feet, somehow seeming barely phased. They appeared to be male and was painfully skinny. He wore typical biker attire: a black leather jacket with shoulder spikes, black pants and boots. A black helmet covered his entire face.

Veronicka lifted her sword to the biker. "You attacked Mifune didn't you? Explain yourself, now!"

The masked man moved his head to the side, as if listening to another voice besides Veronicka's. "No," he said. "I don't want your help right now after what you did back there. I can handle her myself."

The figure reached down to their boots. From inside, he pulled out two one-foot-long rods. He flicked them around and electricity sparked from the ends. Stun batons.

It was an easy fight. All Veronicka had to do was avoid the batons and hit the attacker first. She dashed in a circle around him, making a vortex. She could see the blur where she ran, so to the man it would just look like a golden ring surrounding him. He took a fighting stance, spreading his legs apart, his stun batons raised. Veronicka saw an opening behind him and she took it. She broke from her ring and flew at her opponent. There was no way he could dodge in time.

And he didn't. There was a loud _clang_ and Veronicka's eyes widened. Her blades had made contact… but they didn't damage him. It was like hitting iron. It was as if the man were wearing hard armor that she couldn't see. That was impossible…

The man took advantage of her shock. He turned around, grabbed Darcy's rapier blade and pulled Veronicka closer, shoving one end of the stun baton in to her midsection. Her body convulsed as the electricity went through her and her weapons. Her vision started to blur. The last thing she saw before passing out was her own reflection in the man's helmet. She saw a look she had never had before. And it scared her. It was a look of helplessness and defeat.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nik woke up in what appeared to be a hospital. Veronicka laid on a bed to his left, Darcy beyond her. On his right was the man Jarid and the others called Mifune. He was in worse condition than they were: bandages wrapped around his head over his right eye, gauze around his ribcage, and his right arm was in a sling.

A woman approached him. She was fairly tall and had bright blue eyes. Her black hair was tied up in dreadlocks. That was about all Nik could tell about her, for the rest of her face and body was covered in bandages, so she looked like some sort of mummy. A name tag on her chest read "Mira Naigus."

"Good morning, Nikolai," the woman said. "How are you feeling?"

"I am fine." Nik replied. "How is Lady Veronicka?"

"She will be fine. You all were just knocked out. When your partners wake up, you'll be free to leave."

Nik looked to the wounded teacher. "What about him?"

The mummy lady lowered her eyes. "He just came out of surgery a little while ago. We've done all we can. He has to pull through on his own now."

Nik lowered his gaze. He felt like he had failed Veronicka again. He made a promise to himself to beat that masked man to a pulp the next time they crossed paths.

Soon Veronicka and Darcy awoke and they all exited the hospital. It was about the middle of the day and Veronicka insisted they go to the DWMA. "A late first day is better than no first day" she had said. They trekked up the mountain of stairs leading up to the school and stood in awe of the massive building and its skull-like designs. Veronicka and Darcy started to head inside, but Nik stayed still. His meister looked back, curiously

"What is it, Nik?"

He dropped to his knees and bowed before her. "I apologize for my failure to properly protect you, Lady Veronicka. I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me."

Nik heard Darcy sigh.

"Nikolai, you have nothing to apologize for," Veronicka said. "It was my fault we wound up in the situation we were in. I wanted justice so ferociously, it blinded me. I failed to realize if that masked man had been able to defeat Mifune, a teacher at the DWMA, I surely wouldn't have been able to beat him. So there's no sense in groveling over it. We will train, get better and get even. Stand up and let's go inside."

Nik nodded and rose. They entered and found the main office. Veronicka found a map of the school and observed it. It looked like pure chicken scratch to him, but he knew they wouldn't get lost ever again. Veronicka had a photographic memory and perfect recall. She never forgot anything and could recall facts instantly.

They got their classes registered and headed to their class. Unfortunately, it was just ending. Students were flooding out of the room, like water from a pitcher. Veronicka looked disappointed because she had missed what would have probably been her favorite class.

"Hey are you okay?" a woman's voice said.

The three turned around and there she stood…

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Veronicka's eyes stared, her heart beating uncontrollable. Before her stood her idol, tall and confident. Maka Evans. The girl who had beaten the Kishin Asura all those years ago. She had inspired Veronicka to become a meister to begin with. Veronicka found herself at a loss for words.

Maka gave her a questioning look. "Is something on my face?"

Darcy laughed. "Sorry Miss, Veronicka is a really big fan of yours."

The teacher smiled and laughed as well. "Oh so you're Veronicka! Krystal told me about you. She says you're quite the meister."

Veronicka swallowed and tried to contain herself. "I-I suppose. Krystal told you that?"

"Yes. She is my daughter after all."

Veronicka's jaw dropped. Maka had never mentioned in any of her biographies about having a child. Now that Veronicka thought about it, Krystal did kind of resemble Maka, aside from her eye and hair color.

"I-I've read all your books," she managed. "I hope to one day be as great a meister as you are."

Maka smiled, kindly. "So do I. You have potential. I looked forward to having you in class, Miss McMillan."

Veronicka grinned and bowed. Maka started to head off. Suddenly, Veronicka remembered one last thing she wanted to ask her idol. She called her name and Maka turned around. Veronicka pulled a book from her backpack. It was titled simply, _Soul Eater_. It was a chronicle of Maka and her friends' adventures when they were younger.

She lifted the book to Maka and asked, "Can I please get your autograph?"

Maka smiled. She pulled out a pen and took the book from Veronicka. She opened the cover and wrote in it. She handed it back, patted Veronicka on the shoulder, and continued her way down the hallway. The young meister opened the cover and read her new mentor's words. Nik and Darcy leaned over her shoulders and read too.

 _A sound soul, dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body. I expect great things from you three, so don't let me down! Good luck, and good hunting._

 _-Maka Evans_

What Veronicka did next, she had never thought she would ever do in her life. She hugged the book, and jumped up and down, hollering excitedly. Nik and Darcy looked at each other. Darcy broke out in more laughter and Nik simply grinned.


	9. Chapter 9

_[Hey guys. So a brief word about next week's chapter. Next week is my fall break from school so I will be taking a week off from uploading. So there will be no chapter next week. To make up for this, I've made this week's chapter slightly longer. I hope you all are having great days and thanks for reading!]_

 **Chapter 9: An Eventful Evening (Part 3)**

A huge cloud of sand flew up through the air as Yo's motorcycle trailed across the dry Nevada desert. His foot was pressing down the accelerator as far down as it would go. His anger was swelling so much, he felt like he would explode.

"It's not your fault, kid," Arondight said. "You're not used to the Black Blood yet, so the madness is more capable of taking over."

That only heated up Yo's fire even more. "You're right. It's not my fault. It's yours. I felt your anger against that man and that's probably what brought on the madness in me."

Arondight growled, fitting his doggish face. "Kid, you have no idea what that freak of a doctor put me through. I wasn't about to go back right where he could get his hands on me. The only way I want to see him is at the end of my blade."

Yo still couldn't stop his hands from shaking. That feeling he had during that fight… it did something to him that nothing else had ever accomplished to do. It scared him. He still couldn't get the memory of that night out of his head.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Yo walked into the Guild like usual. Argus stood at the bar and told him to take a seat at one of the booths. Yo did so and began to tap his finger on the table. He looked over to the picture on the wall next to him. It was an old black and white photo of two children. One looked more like a scarecrow than a person. He was painfully skinny from years of having very little food. He had long hair the color of straw and black, hollow eyes. The other was slightly taller, had maroon-colored hair, and dark blue eyes. Both boys were shirtless, only wearing raggedy shorts. Despite the dire situation they appeared to be in, they both had smiles on their faces.

"You kids were the light of my life."

Argus pushed his way into the other side of the booth, his fat gut hindering his progress. This ugly man had picked up the two boys and raised them to be bounty hunters and thieves. He wasn't a very good father, with his… undesirable habits. But he was all Yo had known.

"You're crying," Argus said.

Yo put his hand to his face and felt a tear falling from his right eye. He quickly wiped it away.

"I miss Al too," the Tri-clops went on. "Boy genius, that one. Always tinkering with some machine. He was heartbroken when he found out he had the Syndrome." Argus saw Yo was trying hard to keep from crying further. "You didn't do him wrong, son. He wanted to die as himself instead of some monster, his last sight being his brother-in-arms."

"Just give me my assignment," Yo snapped, trying to change the subject.

Argus placed a tall stack of cash onto the table. "That witch who hired you last time was so pleased with your work, she doubled your pay. She said it might persuade you to work for her again. In fact, she is your client for this job as well." He placed a file on the table next to the money.

Yo took the cash but scooted the file away from him. "Forget it. I'm not taking jobs from witches again any time soon."

His boss's three eyes narrowed. "You're breaking a company law. We don't discriminate. If you choose your jobs, it makes other potential clients think we're picky. And if they think we're picky, they might think their jobs are inferior, ruining business. So you _are_ taking this job, and you'll like it."

Yo snatched up the papers and stormed out the back of the restaurant. He noticed the wooden puppet that witch had sent before. It hadn't moved since that day, laying there all limp and lifeless. Yo had taken the liberty of drawing a face on the puppet and calling it Fred.

Arondight took the opportunity to stretch out of Yo's back. The monster flexed his arms like it was cramped inside Yo's body.

"Go away," Yo said. "This is a public place and I don't want anyone to see you."

"Don't be that way!" the Black Blood creature whined. "I am your teacher after all. You should show me some respect!"

Arondight reached down a hand to poke at Yo's head, but he yelped in pain as Yo grabbed the finger and bent it backwards, causing Arondight to howl in pain. Yo let go, a slight smile on his face. That was revenge for the past few nights of forced sword training. He had made a point that he would only take so much out of his parasitic partner.

Suddenly, Yo heard a gasp form behind him. He turned to see a tall man with long, graying hair. He had a case filled to the brim with katana hanging from his shoulder. A stem of straw stuck out from his mouth.

"Black Blood?" he muttered. "How is that possible?"

Arondight flashed his sharp teeth. "Ask that whacked out Professor Stein! He's the reason I have to put up with this bummer of a kid!"

The man looked away. "Of course." He looked back to Yo. "In any case, I can't let you leave. You must come back with me to the DWMA. Lord Death will want to know about you. Please release your weapon, or I'll have to use force."

Yo didn't notice at first, but Arondight had taken on his weapon form. The sword felt more balanced to him now than when he first held it. He made sure to let Arondight know not to attack on his own ever again. Unless he was looking to get hurt again. "No way!" the sword yelled.

"Sorry," the bounty hunter said, "but I have a job to do. I don't have time to waste fighting you. So just leave me alone."

Dozens of swords landed all around Yo, stabbed deep into the wall and ground. A police tape line connected the ones on the outermost edge of the circle. The man pulled one form the ground and ran in Yo's direction.

"Fine then, old man."

Yo blocked the first strike and knocked the sword from the samurai's hand. Immediately his opponent grabbed another and hit Yo in the shoulder, but it only bounced off. Yo sliced with the serrated edge of his sword and the man blocked. Yo pulled the blade downward, the multiple points creating an array of sparks throughout the air and caused the man to struggle. The samurai jumped back and grabbed another sword from the wall of the alley.

"I see you have chosen your path," he said, almost sadly.

"Damn straight."

"Then I can no longer help you."

Yo's attacker took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Yo blinked and he was gone.

The man's voice echoed from behind him. "You walk the path of the demon. There is no saving you now."

A shock of pain shot across Yo's chest, so intense he couldn't even call out. He slowly fell to his knees and collapsed, a puddle of Black Blood oozing under him. He felt his consciousness slipping. Then the weirdest thing happened. He felt his mouth spread into a smile. He asked an odd question, although he don't know why he asked it, almost as if something was making him speak.

"Did you know my blood is black?"

The he went under.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

When Yo opened his eyes, he found himself in an endless black void. There was nothing for as far as the eye could see, except for a white screen the size of a television. On the screen, an old black and white movie was playing. Two swordsman were deep in combat. The two of them seemed oddly familiar… then Yo realized it was himself and that old swordsman. Yo watched to the point until the part when he passed out came on. Then the strangest thing happened. He got back up!

"What the hell?" he said. "I don't remember that."

"Kid, don't you realize what's happened?" Arondight grew out of Yo's back and crossed his arms. "You're in my Soul Room. You're looking at this fight from my perspective."

Yo looked around in the void. So this was a Soul Room? It was supposedly where a weapon's consciousness went when they transformed. Arondight's was surprisingly empty for his… colorful personality. Yo looked back at the screen and continued watching. At first, the Yo in the movie stood completely still, his head down. Then he began to laugh. It was a horrible, maniacal laugh. The laugh of madness. He swung the blade around wildly at nothing but thin air. He dragged the tip of the blade along the ground and ran at the old man, laughing the whole way and sparks flying in his wake. His attacks were wild and without any order. Yo heard his crazy self yell, "Screech Gamma!" and Arondight's blade began to arc, grow in length, and opened up at the bottom to resembled a demon's mouth.

"We have to do something!" Yo demanded. "He'll kill that man!"

"I wouldn't have a problem with that," Arondight spat.

"I would! Stop it now!"

Arondight sighed. "Focus on something you care deeply about. A dream you hold dear so much, it can overcome all other odds."

Yo looked back at the screen. What had he always wanted to do? Well that was easy, but he needed to act fast. He heard the breaking of metal and saw Crazy Yo standing over the samurai. The old man had a nasty gash across his right eye. Yo saw himself lower the blade to the man's heart and lifted it up.

"No!" he yelled from the Soul Room. "Don't hurt him! I… I…" Yo found it hard to say. Argus had always chastised him for it, and he knew Arondight would sure as hell hate him for it. He dug down deep and finally found the courage to say it. "I've always wanted to go to the DWMA!"

Yo instantly regained his mind and redirected the blade. But the old man didn't go unwounded. Instead of his heart, Yo stabbed his side. He forced Arondight to go back inside his body and knelt down next to the man.

"I'm really sorry…" he said. "I don't know what came over me…"

"It's okay," the man managed to say. "I-I could tell y-you were not… yourself… I heard you… you said you… wish to join the… Academy?"

Yo nodded, his hands shaking.

"I w-will see what I can do… For now,... go… Try to find the right… path…"

Yo heard the sound of approaching footsteps. He ran down the alley and found his bike. He put on his helmet and rode away.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

He was confronted by a blonde girl with a sword and shield at the town's exit. Luckily he was able to stun her without actually causing her any actual harm. He felt like he had caused enough trouble that day.

Yo parked his bike once he reached the edge of the witch's land. The information Argus had provided claimed that Madison would meet with Yo in the Haunted Marshes, a huge swamp said to contain spirits of the dead. If he concentrated hard enough, Yo could see what looked like faces, frozen in pain and suffering.

The fog suddenly opened up and a tall woman stepped out. She had short silver hair and dark skin like warm cocoa. She wore long black robes that seemed to shift constantly. In her hands was a golden rod with a purple orb on the end. Around her neck was a necklace with a single charm shaped like the head of a coyote. Her eyes were a dimmed red color. Stress wrinkles were under her eyes.

"Are you Yoshiya Uchiyaku?" she said in a haunting voice.

Yo nodded.

"I am Terra Spector. Please follow me."

When Yo approached the woman, a dozen skeletons clothed in heavy armor appeared out of nowhere around him. Terra held out her staff and the violet-colored gem glowed.

"Peace my children," she cooed. "He means us no harm."

The spirits hesitated for a moment, then backed away. Terra walked into the fog. Yo followed, trying to follow her walking path in order to avoid the other ghosts. A ghost cat lingered out of the mist and landed on Terra's shoulder. Its purr sounded like bones rattling together.

Finally, they reached their destination: a door on the ground that looked like the entrance to a wine cellar. Terra opened the door and they walked down a series of stairs that seemed to go on forever. The witch flicked a wrist and the sound of shifting stone rang out. The next few steps opened up to reveal a hidden door. Inside was a throne room the size of a tennis court. Several support beams ran between the different sections of the ceiling in many different horizontal and diagonal positions. Along the walls were dozens of wooden puppets like Fred in the alley behind the Guild.

At the end of the room were three thrones. Two of the three seats were occupied. On the leftmost chair was a man with a Mohawk who was furiously drawing away in a sketchbook. In the center was a woman who was much younger than Terra or the drawing man. Her hair was a rat's nest and the color of night. She wore a belly-less tank-top and black pants that were ripped down each side to the knees. She had bracelets made of black feathers on her wrists.

"Welcome, Yo!" the girl shouted. "I bet you never thought I looked like this, huh? I'm pretty hot, right?"

Yo glared at her. "I don't date witches, sorry."

"Oh, poo. Anyway allow me to introduce the rest of my little band. On drums we have the peacock warlock, Mr. Lucas Vega!"

The man looked up from his drawing and scowled at her. "I don't play drums, I draw. And you're telling me this _boy_ is our agent? Not too often you see someone so young working for the Guild."

Yo smirked. "It's also not common to see a man witch. Tell me, were you meant to be a girl when you were born?"

Lucas stood up in rage, but Madison laughed. "He's a funny one isn't he? Next we have our lead vocalist, the mistress of the macabre, Terra Spector!"

Terra took her seat to the left of Madison and sneered. "I do not sing, I speak incantations."

"Whatever! And last, but certainly not least, there's me. The star of the show on lead guitar, the master of puppetry, the raven witch, the one and only, Madison Marionette!"

She pulled out a guitar and made it whine. The body was an axe blade connected to a guitar neck and wired with the six strings. Its sound was eardrum shattering and dreadful.

"Alright!" Yo growled. "You called me here for a job, didn't you? What do you want from me?"

A devious smile crept across Madison's face. "I didn't just call you for a job. I called you for your new career. You work for me now, not the Guild of Thieves."

Yo felt his face flush. As much as he hated this girl, she could probably keep him from the city until the heat died down.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?"

Terra smiled, kindly. "We heard through the puppet in that alley, the one you called Fred, that you wish to join the DWMA. We can make that happen."

"Really?!"

Lucas began drawing again. "We've received word from one of our superiors that the Reaper plans to hold some kind of huge social event involving a lot of the major branches of the DWMA from all over the world. So we've planted some of our colleagues at the branch in England."

"We would like you to go there and meet up with them," Madison continued. "You will go undercover and participate in whatever this event is. Congratulations, Yo. Looks like your dream will be coming true."


	10. Chapter 10

_Hey guys. I know it's been a while since I've uploaded anything. I decided to take some time off for the winter time. But now I'm back and am ready to start uploading again. One thing I'd like to cover before starting will be a new change of format coming up in a couple chapters. Rather than one chapter being solely about one pair, I'll be switching between the multiple different characters. I figured this would make sense since they'll be spending a lot of time together and would save time instead of starting a new chapter to begin the next team's perspective. Anyway that's something for you all to look forward to. Hope you all have a lovely day and please continue enjoying Soul Eater Type 2!_

 **Chapter 10: A Major Announcement: The First Ever DWMA World Tournament?!**

"Checkmate."

Krystal played her final move and placed her piece on the board, crushing Jarid at chess once again. With a sigh, her meister toppled over his queen with one finger, making a light tap.

"You never stood a chance, Jarid," Mifune said from his hospital bed. His daughter, Angela, was feeding him oatmeal with a spoon. She had short, brown hair and wore a black dress. She had a hat that resembled a chameleon's head, complete with bulbous eyes and long tongue. She was a witch, but luckily Mifune had raised her to be an ally to the DWMA. She actually taught a class about how different witches fight.

"Figures," Jarid replied. "That's what I get for having a genius as my partner."

Doctor Stein stepped into the room. His glasses glowed in the florescent lights, which always gave Krystal chills down her spine. His gray beard seemed to stand on end, as if it was filled with static.

He adjusted the glasses, then looked to Mifune. "How are you feeling?"

Mifune seemed to scowl at the sight of the Professor. "I'm fine."

"Tell me what happened the other night. I know it's been a while, and you suffered serious trauma, but I need to know what went on in that alley."

Mifune rubbed the back of his neck and turned his one good eye to Angela. "Could you take Jarid and Krystal back to the school? I would like to speak to the good doctor alone."

Angela nodded and led the students out to the roof of the hospital. The witch whistled and a long broom flew up to them. The three of them straddled it and took off into the air. Krystal looked off towards the morning horizon to see the expanse of Death City. Over the years, the town had grown exponentially, reaching nearly the size of New York City. It was hard to believe it used to be a small town surrounded by walls. Krystal could see the blue lights that divided each district, all lining up perfectly to formed the shape of Lord Death's mask.

"So I heard the new combat teacher starts today," Jarid said.

Angela nodded. "I've never met him, but I've heard he's an old friend of Lord Death and is a good teacher. An odd fellow, but good nonetheless."

They landed at the entrance. Max and Veronicka were sparring once again in the courtyard. When will he learn? Max will have to train a lot more if he wanted to beat her one day.

Just for kicks, Krystal yelled, "Hey, Veronicka!"

The swordswoman looked over. "Yes?" Without looking, she lifted Darcy and blocked another of Max's attacks.

"Your hair looks nice today!"

Krystal liked Veronicka. She was strong, smart, and confident. She made Krystal want to strive to get stronger for herself and Jarid's sake. It was her dream after all.

 _You're nothing without me._

Krystal shook the voice out of her head. She didn't need to linger on nightmares. The bell rang for first period. The weapons became human again and the seven headed inside. As soon as they stepped inside, the intercom clicked on and Lord Death's goofy voice rang out.

"Attention students," it said. "At this time, please make your way to the gymnasium for a special announcement. And please, no pranks this time. You know who you are."

Max yelled, "I'll lead us there!"

Aqiza grabbed the back of Max's collar and dragged him along as Jarid lead the way instead. Krystal admired her partner for being able to memorize the layout of this place. It got a little tiring always being late because of Max's poor leadership skills.

As they approached the gym doors, Krystal noticed two girls off to the side. One was knelt down against the wall, the other standing over her. The one sitting was Juniper Iseley, Krystal's personal rival. The girl standing over her was her partner, Louise.

"Hey guys," Krystal said. "You all go on ahead and get us some seats. I'll be there in a minute."

Jarid raised an eyebrow then nodded. "Don't take too long."

Krystal walked over to Juniper. Her rival was crying, her makeup running. She was actually a magical animal, a fox. Krystal had heard from her parents that some animals in the world had special powers and could actually take on the form of a human if they so desired. Juniper's orange hair came to two points on top to look like her fox ears. She wore a typical school uniform: a tight white button-up shirt, a red tie, a short skirt, and shoes with knee-high socks. When she noticed Krystal, she frowned even more.

"What do _you_ want, Fang?" she snapped.

Krystal crossed her arms. "Why are you crying? I've never known you to get so upset over anything."

"I don't need _you_ feeling sorry for me, so just go away!"

Instead, Krystal sat down beside Juniper.

"Let's put aside our differences for a few minutes. What's bothering you?"

Juniper sniffed and pouted. She gestured for Louise to explain. Her partner was a curly-haired tomboy who commonly wore a white tank-top with a chain design, cargo shorts, and sneakers.

"She saw Chad talking to some other girl and she instantly thinks he's cheating on her," Louise explained.

Chad Williams was Juniper's boyfriend. They were the stereotypical jock and cheerleader couple. With their rather snobbish attitudes, Krystal thought they were made for each other. But she hated to see anyone upset, even if it was this "princess."

Krystal put a hand on the fox's shoulder. "Look, as annoying as Chad can be, he doesn't seem the type to cheat. Jarid has a class with him. I can have him see what's up if you'd like."

Juniper looked up. "Would you really do that for me?"

Krystal smiled and nodded. She and Louise helped Juniper up and they wiped away her running mascara. After she was all fixed, they all entered the gym.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid moved his backpack aside so Krystal could sit.

"What was that about?"

Before she could answer, she seemed to notice something on the gym floor. Immediately, her face reddened and she hid behind her hands. Jarid looked to see what it was, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Pipe down, maggots!" a man's voice boomed.

Jarid turned his attention to a man next to a podium in the center of the floor. He was fairly tall with long, graying red hair and a wrinkled face. He wore a black suit jacket over a white shirt, a cross-shaped tie, black pants, and shiny black shoes.

"Listen up!" the man yelled. "I'm your new P.E. teacher. And let me assure you, I've made it my personal mission to make this school year the worst of your lives!" Suddenly, his mood shifted entirely. "Except for one, of course. My little snow angel! Oh, where are you? Krystal? Krystal!"

Jarid looked at his partner with concern. "Do you… uh… know this guy?"

Krystal peeked out between her fingers. Her entire face was as red as her eyes. "He's my… grandfather…"

Suddenly, Mrs. Evans stormed from her seat and jump-kicked the man in the head so hard, he flew to the other side of the gym. Lord Death retrieved the microphone and patted it softly.

"Please pardon that interruption," he said. "That was Spirit Albarn, my former Death Scythe and a very good friend of mine. Mr. Albarn will be filling in for Mifune while he recovers in the hospital. But that is not the reason I called you all here today." Death looked to Soul sitting in the front row. "Would you like to do the honors, Soul?"

Krystal's dad looked like he'd just woken up. Of course, knowing him, he probably did. "Huh? Oh, sure." He took the mike and cleared his throat. "For years the different branches of the DWMA from all over the world have argued over which one is the best. Well Lord Death, myself, and other head members of the Academy have reached a solution to this conflict. In one month, the DWMA will be hosting a special fighting competition to decide once and for all which branch is the best. It will be called the First Annual DWMA World Fighting Tournament!"

Cheers rose up from the students. Soul held up a hand to calm them. "Now before that, our school must determine which students will represent us in the tournament. To do that, we will be holding a preliminary tourney next week. There are three brackets, each holding eight teams. The three teams that win each bracket will form one large group and become our representatives. Remember there are only twenty-four spots in the preliminaries. Headmaster Kid, Lord Death, Professor Stein and I will be responsible for choosing who competes. Only the top students at the academy will be permitted to fight.

Now what do I mean by top students? Grades aren't the only determining factor. Kishin hunting ability, number of souls collected, and partnership skill will be influencing our decisions as well. Also we will be looking for students we believe have potential to be great later on. So with all that in mind, this assembly is over. Make this week count if you want to be the best in the world!"

Lord Death flashed a peace sign. "Good luck, my young homies!"

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

When Jarid and Krystal reached their classroom, Jarid found a folded note at his seat. On the top was a strange symbol that looked like a W and a D put together. Jarid unfolded the note and read it aloud to Krystal.

"'Meet us on the roof of the student apartments tonight at midnight. Bring your weapon.'"

Krystal frowned. "I have a name, you know. How rude."

"I'm sure they were in a hurry. The handwriting looks rushed."

"Are we gonna go?"

"Might as well. Don't want some poor sap waiting outside all night in the cold."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The moon's laughter seemed kind of light-hearted that night. There was a chill in the air so Krystal rubbed her arms to try and warm herself. No one was around, besides her and Jarid. She wondered if this was a prank. Jarid was doing handstand pushups near the edge of the roof.

"Be careful! You'll fall if you're not!"

Jarid kept on. "I'll be fine. I actually do this all the time when you're not around."

"What?!"

"Gotcha."

Krystal sneered at him and turned her back. She immediately wished she hadn't though. Someone was standing on the building next to the apartments. They were staring directly at her. It was a very short figure with long arms and a large head with two… horns?

"What do _you_ want?" Krystal growled. She immediately scolded herself for saying that. It made her sound too much like Juniper.

The short menace laughed, darkly. It said in a snake-like hiss, "Now, now, Krystalia, there's no need for the bad attitude."

Krystal only grew angrier at the sound of her full name. "Answer me!"

The figure stepped closer to the edge of its building to where Krystal could see it better, revealing a red-skinned, tuxedo-wearing, little devil. "I just wanted to check up on you. I heard you had expected a fight tonight and I can't have you dying before I can have the power I desire."  
"No!" Krystal yelled. "I won't let you!"

The demon's voice suddenly came from directly behind Krystal's back. "Oh, please. As if you could stop me. You don't have the strength your father did, and it certainly doesn't look like you'll become the 'greatest Death Scythe' any time soon."

A tear ran down Krystal's cheek. "Shut up!"

"There is a way, however. Just give in to me. Let the darkness take hold. Allow the madness to rule over you. Then, and only then, will you get the strength you so desperately want."

Krystal summoned one of the blades in her arm and slashed behind her, and almost lobbed off Jarid's head in the process. Luckily, he had managed to catch the blade with his hand. A stream of blood ran across his palm. The little devil's laughter echoed in Krystal's mind.

She changed her arm back to normal. "I'm so sorry, Jarid! Are you okay?"

Jarid looked at the cut on his hand. "It's just a scratch. I'll be okay."

"Tell the truth."

"It hurts REALLY bad."

Krystal pulled the ribbon from her hair and wrapped it around his hand. "I'm really sorry…"

Jarid put his good hand on her shoulder. "Was it _him_?"

She nodded. She had told Jarid about the little devil's "attacks". They always left her feeling depressed and powerless. It was one reason she felt doubtful about becoming strong.

"Maybe we should just head back inside. You'll have a hard time fighting with that hand. Aqiza could help…"

"Now stop right there. I know you, and I know you want to see who's supposed to be here as much as I do. A little cut won't stop me."

Krystal nodded.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

They waited for another hour, the moon being especially creepy. Suddenly, the stop of footsteps appeared. Darcy walked out of the shadows in front of them. Jarid hear steps behind him as well. He looked back to see the orange-clad giant Nikolai standing there, his arms crossed. Jarid couldn't help but grin. Suddenly the symbol on the note made sense. It wasn't a W and a D. It was a V, a backwards N, and a D put together. As in Veronicka, Nik, and Darcy.

"I had a feeling it was you who called us out, Veronicka," he said loudly. "Where are you?"

A blur of yellow zoomed wildly around the roof. It flew passed Darcy, causing her to disappear in the dust. The blur hurried behind Jarid and Krystal, causing their clothes to whip around. Jarid felt it was safe to assume Nik wasn't there anymore. The golden flash screeched to a halt a few yards away. Veronicka stood confidently, her weapons in-hand.

"I grow tired of battling Maxwell all the time," the blonde said. "I want a real challenge, and the other students say you all could provide that."

Jarid laughed. "Okay, first off, that's not Max's name. Secondly, sure. It sounds like fun. Let's do it."

Jarid held out his good hand and Krystal took it. She glowed with a blue light and transformed into her scythe form. Jarid had tried the one-handed scythe style before, but he found it was difficult to handle.

"Ladies first," Jarid insisted.

The faintest glimmer of a smile pulled at Veronicka's mouth. The swordswoman dashed up, quick as lightning and delivered a harsh downward strike. Jarid arced the scythe around to block, sending sparks flying. He quickly broke the locked weapons and swung his blade towards his foe. She growled and sped away in a blur. Veronicka began to run in a circle around Jarid and began to close in at certain points to slash at him. Luckily Jarid could still see her well enough to block her strikes.

Veronicka back flipped away and pointed her sword at Jarid. "It's time to show you how a real knight does battle!"

Jarid blinked, immediately wishing he hadn't. Veronicka was gone. He quickly looked around for her, but to no avail. Suddenly, a sharp cut appeared across Jarid's arm. Then across his leg. The cuts kept forming over and over, catching Jarid off guard because he couldn't even see his attacker.

"She's too fast!" Krystal yelled. "We can't fight her like this!"

"I have an idea," Jarid said. "Follow my lead."

Jarid hesitantly grabbed his scythe with his other hand, wincing at the pain, but bearing with it. He closed his eyes and tried to shut out the pain from his cuts. He could feel his Soul Wavelength flowing through his fingertips, channeling through Krystal, and into the open air around him. If he focused hard enough, he could see the courtyard in his mind. He focused even harder and could barely make out the shape of Veronicka running around if he could just predict her next few movements…

"There!"

Jarid twirled his weapon like a baton and quickly parried Veronicka's attack, catching her completely by surprise. He decided to take this opportunity to strike. Jarid went on the offensive and delivered a blow to Veronicka's midsection with the butt of his scythe, sending her flying into the air. He then leaped up, caught her in the arc of the scythe, spun a quick 360, and launched her back towards the ground. Just before she touched the ground though, Jarid caught a quick glimpse of an orange light. There was a loud _BOOM_ and a cloud of dust erupted from the ground. Jarid landed perfectly on his feet.

For a few moments, nothing happened.

"Hey, Blondie! You alright?" Jarid hollered.

Still nothing.

"Veronicka?" Krystal said.

Before he could blink, Jarid found himself being lifted into the air. Nik grip kept growing tighter around Jarid's throat. He felt Krystal slip from his finger and heard the metal _CLANG_ as she hit the ground. Shadows began to fog Jarid's vision. Everything kept growing farther and farther away…

"Nikolai, that's ENOUGH!"

The giant looked behind him. Veronicka stood beside Darcy, barely scathed at all. Nik reluctantly released his grip on Jarid, dropping him on the ground.

"You are lucky, little man," Nik spat. "If I had not manage to catch Lady Veronicka before she hit ground, I would snap you like twig."

Veronicka bowed, earnestly. "I do apologize. Nik gets a little… carried away when it comes to my safety."

Krystal changed back into her human form and helped Jarid to his feet. He smiled at the swordswoman. "No problem, Blondie. It's nice that you have such loyal partners. I'm sure Krystal would have done the same for me. Right, Krystal?"

His weapon shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe. If I was in the mood."

"Oh thanks! Glad to know I can count on you!"

Everyone started laughing, except for Nik of course who just stood silently with his arms crossed. Jarid felt closer to Veronicka now that they had crossed blades. Sometimes a meeting of fists was better than a handshake.

"Well that was certainly entertaining."

A shadowy figure crawled out of the door that led to the roof. As the man grew closer, Jarid recognized the screw lodged in their head.

"What brings you here, Professor Stein?" he asked.

The doctor gave the screw in his head a turn. "My alarm system went off in the middle of the night. I come up here and what do I find? A late night brawl between a bunch of kids."  
"Relax, Professor," Krystal said. "It was just training for the tournament."

"I figured as much. Now if you all wouldn't mind, please follow me back to my lab. There's something we need to discuss."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: A New Source of Darkness: The Mysterious Twilight Movement?**

"Nope. Try again."

Max wiped the beads of sweat from his brow. Why did that professor have to keep it so hot in here? Max looked up and charged Mifune again, the blade on his arm glowing with his Soul Wavelength. Mifune sidestepped the strike and slashed downward with a katana. The blow was so strong, it knocked off the Galatine Soul Resonance and Aqiza's musket form slid across the floor. Mifune placed his sword back in its sheath and held out a hand.

Max took it. "How is it that you can still hit so hard with only one good hand?!"

Mifune grinned and helped Max to his feet. "It'll take more than this to keep me out of the fight. I'd be teaching right away if Lord Death hadn't insisted that I take time off."

The door to the lab opened and in walked Professor Stein and the rest of Max's friends. They all seemed as surprised as Max was to see Mifune up and about.

"Glad you all could make it," the samurai greeted them.

"M-mister Mifune!" Krystal stammered. "We just saw you in the hospital this morning. Why are you-"

"Sorry to interrupt," Stein cut in, not sounding very sorry, "but we have important business to discuss." He turned his head towards the kitchen. "Marie, my darling."  
Marie poked her head out of the doorway. "Yes, dear?"

"Could you bring our guests some snacks? We might be here for a while."

Marie nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen and the sounds and smells of cooking arose in the air. Soon she brought out a tray with plates of grilled cheeses. Each of the students thanked her, kindly.

Marie sat down next to her husband and laid her head on his shoulder. Stein readjusted his glasses, the florescent lights flickering off them.

"Have any of you ever heard of the Twilight Movement?"

The seven students exchanged looks, but no one answered. Mifune walked over to one of Stein's worktables and picked up something. He rolled it out on the table in front of them. It looked like some kind of propaganda poster. The poster depicted a small girl cowering and crying in a large shadow that unsettlingly resembled Lord Death. The caption read, "Don't let Death hang over you! Join the revolution! Join the Movement!"

"They're an anarchist group that resents a world ruled by Lord Death and the DWMA. They've been trying to overthrow us for a while now," Mifune explained. "They go around the world, preaching things that make Lord Death look to be an unfit leader, and recruiting civilians to join their cause. And with the increasing number of Kishins appearing around the world, our sources are becoming more and more spread thin."

"That's where you kids come in," Stein added. "You see, the Twilight Movement rules by strength in numbers in order to try and intimidate us. We need to show them that we're not afraid. To do that, we need the best of the best students at each of the Academy branches across the globe to make an appearance at the tournament. Therefore, Lord Death, Soul, and myself have decided to grant you all admittance to the preliminary tournament next week."  
"What?!" the seven shouted all at once.

Marie laughed. "You seem surprised."  
"Well, yeah!" Max felt his heart pounding in his chest. He was considered one of the best at the Academy? This wasn't some kind of twisted joke, was it?

"Now this doesn't mean you will go on to represent us," Stein continued, adjusting his glasses again. "The rest is up to you. Each of you have been placed in a different bracket as to give each of you a chance to reach the end. Veronicka, Nik, and Darcy will be in Block A, Jarid and Krystal in Block B, and Max and Aqiza in Block C. That being said," he pointed a finger at them, "if you lose a round, that's on you. No second chances."

Aqiza copied Stein and fixed her glasses' position. "Are we the only ones you've determined so far, or have you already preselected all the contestants?"

Stein grinned, maliciously. "Preselected. We are, however requesting that you all keep your participation a secret for now. We want all contestants to train, but not be able to train to fight against certain opponents. You won't know who you're fighting until the tournament rolls around."

"May luck be with you all," Mifune said.

. . . . . . . . . . .

The seven students exited the laboratory and began the long walk back to the student apartments. Aqiza watched as her meister jumped around and cheered for joy. It made her happy to see Max so overjoyed by making it into the tournament. It meant someone actually thought they were some of the best at the academy. However, Aqiza didn't know how to feel. She couldn't help but have a bad feeling…

"Hey, Aqiza, what do you think?" Jarid asked.

Aqiza snapped to attention. "What? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. I was thinking about the fights."

Krystal raised an eyebrow in concern. "Are you okay? You seem kind of out of it."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Aqiza smiled to reassure her. "What were you talking about?"

"We were discussing what our team name should be if we all get to the World Tournament."

"Oh, okay. Any ideas?"

"I got one!" Max exclaimed. "Team To The Max!"

Immediately everyone booed and spouted negative comments.

"How about Team Resonance?" Jarid suggested.

"Nah, too generic." Krystal said.

Aqiza giggled. "I'm sure we'll think of something."

They reached the apartments and entered its dwelling. They each said their goodbyes and approached their rooms. Max opened the door and jumped onto the couch. Aqiza walked over to the window and looked out over the city, taking in the gorgeous view. She couldn't quite find a word to describe what she was feeling. Fear? Unease? Doubt? All of the above? She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what her father would say to her now.

 _Even the most skilled marksman's aim becomes uneven sometimes. You just have to take a deep breath and readjust your view._

Yeah that sounded about right. He always tried to sound wise by saying things like that to try and cheer her up.

"I miss you, Dad," Aqiza whispered to herself.

She walked to her room and sat on her bed. She opened one of her bedside tables and pulled out a small box. Aqiza opened it and pulled out a small locket her dad had given her when she was young. After the funeral, she couldn't bring herself to open it. Inside was a picture of her father and her when she was a child. Just thinking of the picture made her feel like crying. She quickly changed into her red pajamas and lied down, the reminiscent sounds of gunfire lulling her to sleep.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Yo looked at himself in the long mirror in the room provided to him by the Academy. The room was pretty bland with its simple white interior. Arondight had his elbow propped on Yo's head, his face deep in thought.

"You sure this is gonna work?" Yo asked.

"Don't worry about it, kid. Crona and I came up with tons of techniques for the Black Blood. This one should definitely get us through the school's 'partner requirement'."

"Alright then. Let's try it."  
Arondight converted himself into the Demon Sword and weighed heavily in Yo's hand. Yo swallowed nervously and raised his empty hand to the blade. He ran the edge across his palm and was surprised when it didn't really hurt. He let a pool of Black Blood form on the tiled floor beneath his feet. Yo held up his sword straight up and said the words, "Bloody Doppelgänger!"

The Blood moved around for a bit. Then, like the undead digging its way out of the grave, a solid black hand reached out of the liquid and began crawling its way out of the puddle. The being placed its hand on Yo's leg as it moved up. Soon a figure as tall as Yo stood before him. At first it had no real features; it was just an oozing, slimy being in the shape of a person. Then, it shifted even more. It became more focused and detailed. Before too long, the thing before him became an almost identical reflection of himself, the only difference being it had dark hair instead of blonde and black eyes instead of gold. The person's hand was on Yo's shoulder. The sword disappeared from Yo's hand.

Yo blinked at his copy. "Arondight… is that you?"

The clone blinked back and stretched its legs and its free arm. "Yeah kid. How do you like the bod?"

"Honestly I'm pretty impressed. So what do I tell the teachers when they say we look almost identical? And why are you keeping your hand on my shoulder?"

"Just say we're brothers or something. And I have to stay connected to you physically. If we have to, I can disconnect to you for a short time, but…," Arondight took his hand away and after a few moments, he began to slowly melt. He touched Yo's arm and literally recollected himself. "Not only that, but you would die."

"WHAT?!"

"Although we can do this, we've still got a connection. Symbiotic. You give me a body to live in, I give you badass powers. That's the deal."  
Yo grumbled, not being quite as relieved as he thought he would be. Part of him had hoped Arondight could have just walked away to do his own thing in his new body.

His thoughts were cut off by a knock at the door. Yo made Arondight shrink back inside his body and opened the entrance to his apartment. Three figures stepped in. Two of them, a boy and girl, were obviously twin siblings. They both had lavender colored hair and blue eyes. The boy wore a fancy purple suit jacket over a white shirt, dark violet pants and black shoes. A design of a clock was sewn on the back of his coat. The girl wore an eloquent purple dress with white gloves that reached up to her elbows. Golden jewelry shaped like clock parts hung from her neck.

The third figure was a different story entirely. It was a young woman, but appearance-wise that was all Yo could tell about her because a golden helmet encased her head from the nose up. Her mouth was all Yo could see and that didn't tell him a lot. Her hair must have been stuffed up inside the helmet. Other than that, she wore a black skintight bodysuit that left her hands and feet uncovered.

"Yoshiya Uchiyaku, I presume?" the fancy-dressed girl said.

"Yeah, but Yo is fine. Who are you all?"

The fancy-dressed boy laughed, snobbishly, as if just realizing their mistake. "My, my, how rude of us. My name is Jean. Jean Valentine." Jean flipped up his hair with his hand in an effort to make himself look good.

The girl in the dress said, "And I am his sister and weapon partner, Juliet Valentine." Juliet lifted the sides of her dress in a curtsey.

Yo looked to the girl with the golden helmet. "And you?"

Her head moved in Yo's direction. "I am Blaze of the Sisterhood of Flame," she announced in a voice that was completely void of any emotion at all.

"Sisterhood… are the other members your weapons?"

Blaze nodded. "My sisters are resting now. They won't be joining us."

Yo blinked at the blandness of her statement. "Alright then. Why are you all here?"

The twins made themselves comfortable at the kitchen table area. Blaze shut the door and stood there like a guard. Jean gestured for Yo to sit at the table. He did as he was told.

Juliet interlocked her fingers. "You are the one the raven witch sent? The one with the Black Blood?"

Yo's eyes narrowed. "Maybe. Why do you ask?"

Jean giggled again, making Yo uneasy. "No need to be so hostile. You should consider yourself honored to be a key part in our plan to bring true beauty to the world."

Yo crossed his arms. "Okay… meaning what exactly?"

Juliet smiled at him. "Let's just say we're a reconnaissance group for a higher power that wants to bring peace to the world. We've gotten word that someone is trying to cause trouble at these academies. Someone deep within the system itself. Our job is to pass ourselves off as students in order to investigate these threats and possibly stop them."

"And you work with witches like Madison and her friends? People who only wish to spread chaos?"  
Blaze decided to speak up. "It was necessary. Calculations proved that alliances needed to be made. Morality had to be put aside to bring peace."

"Then there's you," Juliet continued. "Now that you know what we're doing, we need to know you're with us. Will you aid us in our endeavors?"

Yo thought for a moment. These people seemed like they had good intentions. Although the fact that they work with witches still stood. To Yo, that still required investigation.

"What happens if I say no?" Yo asked.

Jean, once again, giggled as if something funny was said. "Then we'd have to kill you, silly! We can't just let you wander around knowing about us."

"Then really what choice do I have?"

Juliet clapped her gloved hands together. "Wonderful. Well we had better be going. It does seem to be getting rather late. Until the morrow, Yoshiya."

The three agents made their exit, leaving Yo and Arondight alone.

"What do you think, Arondight?" Yo asked.

His weapon grew out of his back and stretched. "Something about them stinks, and I'm pretty sure it was more than that boy's cheap cologne. Keep your eye on them, kid."

Yo nodded. He looked at the hand he had cut open before. The wound had completely sealed up, leaving only a small scar that was barely visible. He clenched his fist and stood. He reached over to his duffel bag full of spray paint cans and walked outside. He needed to tag something to vent some frustration.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Black Blood Bonding: The Terrible Screech Epsilon?!**

Yo gave his work a final few sprays from the can. When he felt satisfied enough, he stepped back and pulled the cloth off from over his nose and mouth. He looked up to admire his work. It was his own take on a piece of graffiti he saw on a mission to Tokyo. It was a black cartoon cat's head with stars for eyes. Two large gloved hands posed with random gestures were positioned next to the animal. Behind the cat was a random series of multicolored streaks in no particular order. Yo had decided to add his new trademark to the artwork: his new signature, the Double B. In actuality, it kind of just looked like an eight with a line drawn down the middle, but Yo didn't care. It was a good, hidden abbreviation for this affliction that had become his life.

Arondight sprouted up like a weed and observed Yo's painting. His eyes narrowed like he was concentrating very hard.

"I don't get it," he said.

Yo looked up at his bloody partner. "There's not really anything to 'get.' It's meant to be up for interpretation. How does it make you feel?"

"It makes me feel like hurting you cuz I had no idea you were such a freakin' nerd!" Arondight laughed and began to tug at Yo's hair.

"Knock it off!" Yo delivered a vertical punch directly into Arondight's snout.

He howled in pain and sank back inside Yo's body. Yo felt several tugs inside and watched as parts of his body seemed to spike out violently. Somehow though, he didn't feel anything besides a little freaked out.

"You tried that before and you know it doesn't work on me," Yo mocked.

"Dammit! How come Blood Rejection doesn't bother you? I never had this problem with Crona! He was always willing to let me beat up on him!"

Yo smirked. "Sounds like he was kind of a pushover."

Arondight shot one larger spike out of Yo's chest. "Shut up, kid! Crona was a way better swordsman than you!"

"You got real defensive all of a sudden."

Arondight grew back out of Yo's back and crossed his arms. He closed his eyes, as if remembering fonder times.

"That kid took a lot of crap from me… Our relationship was always one-sided because I beat him up if he didn't listen to me. That, plus the abuse he got from his mom, Medusa, really screwed him up. It wasn't until he and that gun girl got together that he actually started resisting me. He made himself an equal to me."

Yo clapped, moderately. "Such a moving story."

Arondight growled. The two of them were cut off by the sounds of multiple people screaming in the distance. Yo dropped his spray paint can in surprise. It made a loud _clang_ as it hit the ground. He raced over to his motorcycle and put on his helmet.

"What the hell are you doing?" his blood asked.

"I'm going to see if I can help."

Arondight mumbled something under his breath. Yo sat on his bike and stomped down on the accelerator, sending him flying down the streets. He drove into an open area and got a clear view of Big Ben with the moon hovering over it, ominously. The clock struck midnight, the loud _dong_ echoing across the town.

Yo approached one of the many open parks in London that the common folk tended to use for gatherings and parties. The sound of a gunshot exploded in the park and Yo pulled his bike to a halt. He stealthily walked over to the park's entrance and hid behind the shrubbery next to it. He drew Arondight and held the tip of the sword barely over the top of the bush.

"What do you see?" he whispered.

The end of the blade morphed into one of Arondight's eyes. Yo waited a moment, anticipating a clear picture of the situation.

"There's, like, twelve guys with guns," Arondight put simply.

Yo grumbled. So much for that. He moved along the hedge until he approached a tree. He climbed to the top and took his own survey of the land. Surely enough, there were several armed men surrounding the park. What Yo's partner had failed to explain was there was also a crowd of well-dressed civilians crowded into the corner. In the center of the park was an open-roofed gazebo. Standing in which was a man about seven feet tall. He was well-built and carried himself very well. He was dressed like an aristocrat. His face looked like what Yo would think a snake would look like had it became human, slender with beady, glowing eyes. His hair was slicked back and shined brilliantly. He had one hand around a young woman's shoulder, the other waving around a pistol.

The tall man traced the edge of the woman's face with the gun. "Such a gorgeous specimen. You'll do very nicely."

Tears welled up in the woman's eyes. Yo tightened his grip around the grip of his sword.

Immediately the well-dressed man's attitude shifted. He sneered in rage and shot one of his own henchmen, shrinking them down into a Kishin Egg. He shoved the young woman away and devoured the corrupted soul, licking his lips tenderly. He popped the bones in his neck and stood straight once again.

"Sorry about that, ladies and gents," he said. "Hyde has a… unique way of showing his affection."

His head snapped to the right, as if he were looking at something. "Shut up, Jekyll, you miserable punk!" he shouted in a completely different voice. "Don't think I won't start to eat you too!"

His head looked back to the left. "Be quiet! You're making the honorable Split Gang look like buffoons!"

This process of switching personalities continued for several more minutes. Yo found this man's condition both disturbing and oddly hilarious. However, he also deemed it wise to act quickly as to keep the two of them from causing any harm to the pedestrians.

"Got any ideas about how we should go about this?" Yo asked his partner.

"Yeah." Without warning, Arondight released his wings out of Yo's back and shot them up in the air. The Black Blood's mouth appeared across the flat of the sword and grinned maniacally. It opened up and let loose an eardrum shattering scream that echoed across the entire city. The civilians and gang members alike all grabbed their ears in pain. Luckily the civilians took the opportunity and fled from the park. Arondight launched Yo downward and landed him in the center of the opening.

"How was that for a plan?" Arondight said, proudly.

Yo shook his weapon around furiously. "You idiot! Now they all know we're here! We're sitting ducks!"

Three of the henchman gang members charged Yo with crowbars in their hands. Yo ducked and parried the opponents, then delivered a single slash horizontally, killing all three of them. Yo felt proud of himself for such a successful move, but his happiness quickly faded when he realized the rest of the mob had surrounded him with machine guns aimed at him. The man called Jekyll grinned maliciously.

"Men don't usually whet Hyde's pallet as well as women, but seeing how you scared off the rest of our meal, I'm afraid you'll have to do."

Instinctively, Yo hardened the Black Blood and covered his face with his arms. The roaring of gunfire filled the park square, and Yo felt the nonstop rain of bullets pummel against his body. They all bounced off, but they still packed quite a punch and soon Yo felt his strength begin to give out.

"We're in trouble here, kid!" Arondight shouted in Yo's mind.

Suddenly, Yo remembered something that Professor had said the night he got his new partner; something he had written off as mad drivel up until now. And since Arondight was inside Yo's mind, he already knew what the plan was. Together they yelled the chant that was famous among meisters and weapons.

"Let's go, Soul Resonance!"

Yo felt his Soul Wavelength build up and flow through his body and Arondight, rejuvenating them. He observed the changes occurring to his Black Blood weapon. The handle grew longer to that of a staff. The blade shrank in length, but became wider and more cross-like. A blue eye emblazoned the new weapon's blades. It was a mighty halberd. Yo adjusted his grip and shouted the name of his new weapon.

"Screech Epsilon!"  
He broke out of his guarding position and began to twirl around the longer weapon at a speed he didn't think was possible. Every shot fired by the gang was being deflected and launched back at them. Soon only Jekyll, aside from the new collection of Kishin Eggs surrounding him, was left.

The leader switched personalities and Hyde screamed in defiance, unleashing a barrage of bullets. Yo stabbed the blade of Screech Epsilon into the ground. After lifting the weapon, he waited a few moments, letting the bullets uselessly bounce off him. Then the sound of ground breaking appeared and Hyde's shooting stopped. He looked down to see a solid black hand reaching out of the ground and grabbing his ankle. He reeled away in panic as a black duplicate of Yo crawled its way out from the soil. The Copy Yo delivered a swift kick to Hyde's torso and pinned him to the ground. Yo approached his prey and pointed his blade under Hyde's chin.

"Consider this world off the menu." He plunged the halberd into the Kishin's neck, causing it to retreat into its Egg form.

Yo sighed in relief. Arondight shifted from his weapon form and grew out of Yo's back. He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. All of the Kishin souls in the area were sucked into his mouth like a vacuum.

The Black Blood monster smiled with his sharp teeth. "Man, I haven't had any souls in a while. Funny that you never realized how hungry you are until you start chowing down!"

Yo heard the clicking of heels. He turned to see the young woman from before who was being harassed by Jekyll.

"My, what a weird sight," she said in a voice as smooth as silk.

Yo looked up at his partner, then realize his mistake. He punched Arondight in the midriff. "Why didn't you hide, you idiot?!"

Arondight tugged on Yo's hair. "Well excuse me for trying to enjoy my food!"

The girl giggled. Yo forced his annoying partner off of him. "It's probably best you forgot you saw us. We're not exactly… supposed to be together like this."  
"I'm Destiny Callahan," the girl introduced herself, cutting off Yo's words.

Yo reluctantly returned the introduction.

"You're going to the Academy starting tomorrow, right? Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. You did safe my life tonight, after all. I'll see you there!"

Without waiting for Yo to reply, Destiny took off down the street.

Yo lifted his hand and looked at his palm. That power was unlike anything he had ever felt before. And he could tell Arondight had liked the way it felt as well.

"Wonder why Crona and I never did anything like that…"  
"Probably because most of your resonances with him were more one-sided," Yo responded. "Since our souls are more equal, we might be capable of more power."

Yo closed his fist and sat down on his bike. As he flew down the streets of London, the wind flowing through his hair, something tugged away at him deep within. That power was something else. It was incredible. It was almost…

Addicting.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

A few days later…

"Aw you gotta be kidding me!"

Jarid gently punched Max in the shoulder to shut him up. "What's got you all worked up, Maxio?"

Max growled. Aqiza explained, "The mission in London we were going to complete as practice for the tournament was already completed."  
Krystal frowned. "That's unfortunate."

Max threw his hands up in the air. "There's gotta be some quick way for us to get stronger! We HAVE to win the tournament so the world can see how absolutely awesome I am!"

"There is a way."

Jarid, Max, and their partners turned to see Veronicka approaching them along with Darcy and Nik.

"What do you mean, blondie?" Jarid wondered.

Veronicka glared at him. "How many times must I ask you to stop calling me that?"

Jarid smiled and stuck up his hands in surrender. Veronicka was pretty, but she sure could be cold sometimes.

Max was literally shaking with excitement. "What is this super mazing power-up? I have to know!"

"It's one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful weapon ever created," Darcy said.

"Legend says wielder gains wings of light and power unimaginable," Nik added.

Veronicka blinked slowly and said, "Of course we mean, the Legendary Holy Sword,

Excalibur!"

 _[Hey guys. Sorry about the really super late upload. School is being a pain and I actually have a job now (ick) and that all tends to get in the way of typing and coming up with new chapters. I hope you all will forgive me if I happen to stray from my original pattern of uploading a chapter every week, but I promise that I will keep this story going until its completion. Thank you all and I hope you continue to enjoy Soul Eater Type 2!]_

 _[PS. Props to anyone who can point out where Yo's graffiti came from. ;)]_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Finding New Strength: Excalibur and the Missing Gift**

Max rubbed Jarid's shoulders to help him loosen up. He chanted encouraging words in his ears, trying his best to make Jarid feel more confident.

"You got this man!" He cheered. "You're a lean, mean, love machine! Now get out there, and claim what's yours!"

Max shoved Jarid forward. Jarid felt the lump in his throat tighten as he approached her. His hands were shaking in his pockets. He had faced dozens of bloodthirsty and dreadful Kishins, but the fear he had then was nothing compared to what flowed through Jarid at this very moment.

Krystal was working on her homework. Hesitantly, Jarid built up the courage to say her name. His partner looked up at him with her glowing red eyes. Jarid felt his heart stop. He clenched his fists and asked her.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid's head hung low as he and his two meister friends traversed the land on their way to Excalibur's cave. Veronicka lead the way, already memorizing the map, and Max had his hand on Jarid's shoulder.

"What is he so upset about?" Veronicka asked.

Max replied, "He tried to ask Krystal out again."  
"Tried?"

Jarid sighed. "I…um… asked her to take notes in class for me…"

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Aw he's shy!"

Krystal laughed. Her father was cooking breakfast, staying completely silent, no doubt listening to every detail of Jarid's attempt to ask her out. Her mom and Aqiza were sitting beside her at the kitchen table, sipping coffee and giggling at the story.

"Yeah, it was really cute."

Aqiza adjusted her glasses. "You should just ask him out and save him the stress."

"Maybe one day. We're so focused on the tournament right now, though. I don't want us to get distracted."

Mom looked at her watch. "Oh shoot, look at the time. You two should get going if you're going to meet up with your friends before the movie starts."

Krystal nodded. She gave her mom a hug, her dad a kiss on the cheek, and walked through the door to the garage with Aqiza by her side. Krystal pressed a red button on the wall and the garage doors rose open. She looked at her prized vehicle, taking in every piece of its magnificence. It was an orange motorcycle with various decals placed all across its body. It was a gift from her father for her sixteenth birthday.

The engine roared to life as the ignition turned. Krystal, with Aqiza on the back, drove the bike through the streets of Death City. They pulled up to the street corner by the student apartments and waited for the others. Krystal and Aqiza turned their arms into blades and had a mini sword fight to pass the time. Soon, loud music filled the air. Tires screeched and a long purple car pulled up next to Krystal's bike. It was a vintage convertible with new improved speakers implanted into it. Darcy was jamming out to her booming music in the driver's seat. Nikolai sat in the back, his arms crossed as usual.

Krystal parked her bike next to the apartments and hopped in the passenger seat. Aqiza sat in the back next to Nik.

"Nice car!" Krystal exclaimed.

"Hell yeah it is!" Darcy agreed. "Having an heiress as a meister has some benefits!"  
Aqiza reached up and turned the music down a little. "We still have some time before the movie starts. What should we do?"  
Krystal said, "We could go shopping at the mall."  
"Sounds like a plan!" Darcy's grin disappeared for a moment. "Oh wait guys. We're leaving Nik out. We should let him have a say too. Hey Nik?"

Nik turned his head. "Hm?'

The three girls leaned closer to him and gave him their flirtiest looks. Aqiza even made an attempt to pull the top of her shirt down, exposing a tad bit of cleavage. "What do you want to do?"

Nik didn't give any indication he was deterred. He simply looked away, not saying anything.

"You're no fun!" Darcy cried. "To the mall!" She stomped on the accelerator and they flew down the streets in a streak of violet.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The four weapons spent the day walking around the mall and into the various clothing stores, making several purchases along the way. They made Nik carry all the bags, him being the gentleman he is. They found a food court and took seats while they waited for their meals.

"That was fun!" Aqiza said, happily. "It's nice to just have a girl's day out."  
Krystal pointed at Nik. "Well, there's one guy, but he just doesn't say much."

Darcy poked Nik in the head. "Aw, he's just upset because Veronicka insisted she go on the whole 'Excalibur' thing without him. He loooooooooves her, don'cha Nikky?"

Nik growled in response.

Suddenly, the sounds of a scuffle erupted from the main plaza area of the mall. The four weapons rose and dashed to the open area. A crowd was gathering around like kids would at a fight at school. Krystal and her friends pushed their way to the front of the mob and took in what was happening.

Two meisters were battling, their weapons drawn. One was Chad Williams, the jock boyfriend of Juniper Iseley. He was tall with slicked back black hair. He was very fit and wore a long brown, leather trench coat. In his hands was his weapon Neptune, a blue crystalline trident with golden blade tips.

The other meister was little Joey Oicul. He was a little impish kid with blonde dreadlocks, a green tank-top, blue pants, and black rollerblades on his feet. He weapon, Barney Symphony, was a circular, black and green pair of headphones. The music that played through the headphones amplified Joey's body in different ways. One song might make him move much faster, while another might make his attacks have more strength.

Chad lunged at Joey with his spear, a look of rage blazing in his eyes. Beads of sweat trailed down little Joey's face as he literally danced away from his attacker.

"Give it back, you little punk!" Chad shouted.

Joey straightened himself. "I dunno whatchu talkin' 'bout, yo! Why you gotta be so hostile?!"

Chad only got angrier and charged once again. This time though, Nik decided to interfere. The Russian giant stepped out in front of the approaching trident.

"Nik!" Krystal yelled. "What are you doing? You're going to get hurt!"

Darcy held a hand out to stop her. She gave Krystal a look that said "he's got this." Krystal looked back at her giant friend as he plainly stood in place. Chad shouted, "Get out of my way!" then swung at Nik. This was to no avail, however, because there was the sound of clanging metal as the blade made contact. The trident simply was rested against Nik's torso rather than impaling him. Nik took advantage of Chad's surprise to act. He grabbed the staff of the trident, ripped it out of Chad's hands, and threw it down the mall hallway.

"Dude!" Neptune howled as he flew away.

Krystal looked to the little dancer, Joey. "You can go. We can handle it here. Nice moves by the way."

Joey winked at her. "Thanks, Snow Angel. I'll see you dogs later!" He skated away.

Chad started to give chase, but Darcy tripped him, leaving him flat on his belly. The crowd thinned out, leaving the weapons alone with the bully. Krystal leaned down next to Chad and asked him probably the most important question ever.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Chad growled. "That brat stole something of mine. He kept lying, saying he didn't have it, but I know he does! He thinks this is payback for that deal with the lunch money the other day. But I don't play to get even, I play to win!"

Krystal gave Chad a quick karate chop to the top of the head. "He wasn't lying, you moron. My Soul Perception would have picked up a dissonance in his soul if he was."

"You're an ass, you know that?" Darcy spat.

Chad growled. Krystal held up a hand at Darcy to calm her down. "What did you lose?"

The school bully blinked. Then he looked down with a sad expression. "A pearl. Juni loves pearls, so I picked one up on mine and Neptune's last mission on the beach. I gave it to Olivia Ijneg, one of our teammates, for safe keeping. But when I went to get it from her, she said it was gone."

Neptune came strolling back towards them. He was a typical surfer dude. He wore blue swimming trunks, a blue shirt with the buttons undone so it showed off his midriff, and blue and orange goggles over his eyes. He had icy blue hair.

"Sah, dude!" he said to Nik. "You have one hell of an arm on you. I caught some sick air!"

Nik stayed silent.

"Chad's right, though. Even if she is blind, Olivia never loses anything, so you can see how we were so totally suspicious about Tiny Dancer over there, chyeah."

Krystal got to thinking. That was probably the exchange Juniper saw that led her to believe Chad was cheating on her. As much as she hated how stuck up these people were, she decided to try and do the right thing.

"If we can find the pearl, will you stop going around terrorizing kids for the moment?" she said, forcing herself a little.

Darcy exclaimed, "What?! We're going to help this jerk?"

Chad looked at Krystal with a questioning look as well. "Why would you help me?"

"Because it's what a meister does. To protect and serve the people. Maybe you should think about that," Krystal replied with sternness.

The four weapons walked away. Aqiza supported Krystal and asked the first question on all of their minds.

"Where do we start?"

"We go back to the apartments and talk to Olivia, then work our way from there."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Krystal tapped the door and waited for it to open. She heard a girl saying "whoa" like they were trying to balance themselves. Eventually, the door knob turned a few times and the door opened. Olivia stood in the doorway, her head moving around as if looking for someone. She had very short pink hair and wore a white and pink kimono, and tall sandals. She had a black blindfold wrapped around her head and over her eyes. A blue magatama hung around her neck.

"Is someone there? Isaac is this another prank? Are you even here?" Olivia asked.

"Hi Olivia," Krystal said.

"Oh hi, Krystal!" the blind girl replied, recognizing Krystal's voice. "Please, come on in."

The four weapons entered Olivia's dwelling. Several empty coffee cups lined the kitchen bar. An in-progress painting on an easel stood next to the window. Several other pieces of artwork were hanging on the walls.

Darcy raced around the room, looking at the various drawings and paintings. "Whoa these are awesome!"  
"Indeed," Aqiza agreed. "It still astounds me how you do all this, Olivia."  
Darcy's jaw dropped. "Wait… YOU made all of these?"

Olivia tilted her head. "You're Veronicka's weapon…. Darcy, correct? And I can assume that the stalwart giant Nikolai is here as well?"

"Dah," Nikolai said.

"We haven't had the pleasure of meeting. Hello! My name is Olivia Ijneg. I'm an artist."

"But you're…you're…," Darcy stuttered.

"Blind? Yes I am. But," Olivia smiled, "I still have a concept of color and light. I can't really explain it myself, but I've been blessed with the ability to create these artworks. And even though I can't see them, it makes me extremely happy to hear loving reactions like yours. So please, as a gift, pick one of the pictures. You can have it."

Darcy's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Olivia nodded. Darcy walked back over to the art to pick one. Krystal turned to Olivia.

"Chad told us what happened with his gift for Juniper," she said.

Olivia sighed. "Yeah. Abby usually fixes things for me at the beginning and the end of the day. She gets my clothes ready, my food, my bed at night. The night Chad gave me the pearl, I told Abby to put it in the little cupboard in my room. I even felt around in it before I went to bed to see if it was there, and it was. When I woke up the next morning, it was gone."

Just then, the front door opened. In walked Abigail Walker, Olivia's weapon partner. She was almost as tall as Nik, and very thin. She wore a black and purple colored kimono and a red magatama. She had long black hair tied in two ponytails and bright pinkish eyes. In her arms were four brown paper bags filled to the brims with groceries. She noticed Krystal and her friends and smiled.

"Oh, hey guys," she said happily. "You're all just in time! I'm cooking vegetable stew for dinner."

"That sounds lovely!" Aqiza responded.

"Unfortunately, we can't stay long," Krystal said.

Olivia followed the sound of Abigail's voice and put her hand on her weapon's shoulder. "They're looking for Chad's gift for Juni."

Abigail nodded in understanding. "Ah I see. I'm truly sorry for what happened."

"It's okay. That is odd what happened though."

"Yeah. It was weird."

The four weapons exited Olivia and Abigail's apartment and made their way outside. The bell tower rang with the passing of the hour. Krystal was at a complete loss for ideas. She decided to dig out her phone from her pocket and give Jarid a call to see how he was doing.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid answered his phone as the ringing echoed in the cave.

"Hello?"

"Hey how's it going?" his weapon asked.

Jarid looked at the dramatic scene unfolding in front of him. When the three of them arrived at the cave, there was a golden sword plunged into a stone in the center of the floor. But when they pulled it, it came out quite easily rather than not at all like they had thought. Little did they know they hell they would unleash on themselves. Max and Veronicka stood arguing at a short alien-looking creature that wore fancy clothes and held a cane.

"This is the legendary Holy Sword Excalibur?!" Veronicka said, frustrated. "Inconceivable! He's neither remotely 'holy' or 'legendary'! He's just so…so…"  
Max joined in on the rant as the odd creature began singing a song about himself. "Shut up you weirdo! Get that damn cane out of my face before I break it over your head! You're so…so…"

"LAME!" they yelled together.  
"Fools!" Excalibur exclaimed, pointing the cane even more. "Do you even know who I am? My legend dates back to the 12th century you know."

"No one cares!" Max shouted.

Jarid turned back to his call. "It's…going… What about you? Enjoying your day off?"

Krystal explained the situation with Chad's team. Jarid thought for a moment.

"What I would do is check the outside of the apartment building around their window. Try to see if there's any signs of climbing gear or something like that. Someone couldn't have climbed all the way up there without leaving some kind of trace."

"Better than nothing. We'll try looking around some more. Talk to you later!"

Jarid clicked his phone shut and looked back at his fellow meisters as they screamed and shouted over Excalibur.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Krystal and her friends observed the outer wall leading up to Olivia's window. There were no apparent markings made by climbing tools. Krystal sighed. She thought she could've done something great, even for someone like Chad who might not deserve it. Aqiza gave her a look of pity and placed a hand on her back.

"We should get going," Darcy said.

They started to walk back towards Veronicka's car when something shined in the corner of Krystal's eye. She noticed something flickering light up at the top of the bell tower. She took a minute to look at the light, then widened her eyes when she realized what it was. She yanked Nik's arm so he stood between the light and her just as the gunshot echoed over the land. Instinctively, Nik's skin solidified and the bullet ricocheted off of him.

"Sniper in the bell tower!" Krystal yelled. "Get back!"

Aqiza and Darcy joined Krystal behind Nik as the sniper released shot after shot. Krystal knew they wouldn't be able to do anything from down on the ground. She grabbed Aqiza's hand and guided it into Nik's.

"You two cover us!" she ordered. "Darcy and I will go inside the tower and work our way up!"  
Nik and Aqiza nodded. Aqiza transformed into her rifle form and Nik started laying down suppressing fire at the sniper to make them dive for cover. Krystal and Darcy took the chance to dash to the entrance of the bell tower. The scythe's jaw dropped as she saw the mountain of stairs leading to the main bell.

"Don't worry!" Darcy said. "I've got this!"

Darcy became her sword form and landed in Krystal's hand. Krystal had never noticed before, but she felt what felt like a gun trigger along the top of the grip.

"Pull the trigger twice!"

Krystal clicked the trigger once, which ejected the blade of the sword from the grip, along with a thin metal cord. The blade shot through the air and pierced itself in the wall further up the tower. Krystal pulled the trigger a second time, causing the cord to retract and pulling her through the air.

"Whoa! I didn't know you could do this too!"

Darcy laughed from inside her weapon form. Krystal kept launching herself up through the interior of the tower. The sounds of gunfire roared outside. Hopefully Nik would be able to hold out long enough until she reached the sniper.

Finally, Krystal reached the door to the roof of the bell tower. She pried it open and stepped out to confront their attacker. What she found however, surprised her.

There were five of them: one holding the sniper rifle, the others standing to the side with swords and axes. They didn't appear to be human, but rather resembled the posable dolls that Krystal had seen Olivia use for art once. Almost immediately, the gunman stopped firing and turned to Krystal. She lifted Darcy with one hand and morphed her other into her scythe blade. She took a stance as the enemy charged her.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Nik lowered the rifle when he noticed his attempted assailant had stopped firing.

"What are they doing?" Aqiza asked.

Nik lifted the scope to his eye and concentrated. He could see sparks flying up, and he could barely make out the sounds of metal hitting metal.

"Fighting," Nik replied.

"We have to get up there and help them!"

"Hold on."

"What?"

Nik lifted up the rifle, aimed, and threw it toward the top of the bell tower. He then took a full dash towards the entrance and stormed his way up the steps.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Krystal kicked herself back to avoid a blade attack.

"Krystal!"  
She turned to see Aqiza in her weapon form flying through the air. She turned her hand back to normal and caught the rifle just in time to blow off the head of an approaching foe. She parried another attack with her rapier, then shot the attacker in the chest, sending them sprawling. She slashed another in half with a quick movement.

Suddenly, the sound of stomping appeared. Nik launched himself out of the small door to the roof and smashed two more mannequins with his bare hands. He grabbed the last attacker around the face and squeezed it until the wooden head exploded.

Krystal let out a breath of relief. She released Darcy and Aqiza and returned to human form. She looked around at the broken pieces of their attackers. She had never seen anything like them before. Living puppets…

"Hey look!" Krystal heard Darcy shout.

She looked to where the rapier was pointing. Something sparkled in the chest of one of the puppets. Krystal knelt down to investigate. Inside was a shiny, multicolored orb the size of a baseball.

"Well, whaddya know," she said. "Looks like we found our thieves."

Aqiza adjusted her glasses. She had an expression of deep thought plastered across her face. "What exactly were these things? Why did they have Chad's pearl? And why did they attack you?"

Krystal raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean 'us'?"

"No, that first shot was aimed directly at you. If you hadn't reacted in time, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Krystal looked at the shining jewel in his hand. Someone intentionally attacked her. Someone wanted her dead…

"AW DAMMIT!" Darcy shouted. "We're way late for the movie now!"

Krystal smiled. "We did the right thing, though. C'mon, let's go give this back to Chad."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

They waited at the door to and Neptune's apartment. Neptune lazily opened the door and grinned ridiculously.

"Yo, little dude!" he exclaimed. He turned behind him and said, "Hey, brah! The little heroes are back!"

Chad got up from his couch and approached the door.

"Did you find it?" he asked.

Krystal pulled out the pearl and handed it to him. She explained where they had found it and from whom. "I hope you'll think a little more before going around threatening people next time."

Chad narrowed his eyes. "I don't what to say… thanks…"

Krystal nodded. "You're welcome."

Chad pocketed the pearl and looked at them with a determined expression. "Now don't think this means we're gonna go easy on you at the tournament!"

"You got accepted into the prelims?" Darcy asked, sounding surprised.

Neptune nodded excitedly. "Chya dudes. We're, like, gonna totally clean house."

"I can't wait for a chance to kick your ass!"

The four weapons left the jocks to their business. They exchanged goodbyes and went to their respected apartments. Krystal took a breath at her door. She needed a warm bath and a good night's sleep after the day she'd had.

When she'd opened the door, she was surprised to find her meister crashed on the sofa, fast asleep. She bent down and pulled a cover over him. She heard him mumble something in his sleep.

"Greatest….Death….Scythe…."

Krystal smiled. Even after all these years, Jarid still wanted to help he accomplish her goals.

She entered her room and changed into her pajamas. Krystal turned off her lights and lied down on her bed.

"You're gonna get him killed one day, you know that? His loyalty to you will be his undoing," the demon in her head said.

 _Hey guys. Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. We're approaching some major stuff here though! The tournament is right around the corner and who knows what kind of combat we'll see!...well I do…. But that's beside the point! I hope you all have a wonderful day and hope you continue enjoying this story!_

 _P.s. if any of you can point out the references of any of the new characters introduced in this chapter, ten bucks to you._


	14. Chapter 14

_Hey guys, it has been a while. I apologize for the freakishly long gap since the last chapter. I took a bit of a summer break from writing, plus the immense writer's block I had made things even worse. But I am back and there's a few things I want to cover before getting into chapter 14. First, I do fully intend to post this whole story in its entirety. I will not abandon it incomplete. With that, on to my second point: I no longer am going to promise a chapter every week. Now that school has started back I will be busy balancing that, work, and writing this story as much as I can. Also I am currently in the process of writing a whole new project to share with you all on here within the next few weeks. Plus, I want to have enough time to make sure each chapter from here on isn't rushed out just to meet my weekly quota. I want each segment of this story to be as complete as possible to not only make for a better story, but so I don't disappoint you guys with crappy content. Now with all that being said, I hope you continue to enjoy Soul Eater Type 2!_

 **Chapter 14: A New Door Opens: The Preliminary Tournament!**

"Welcome students and faculty alike! Welcome to the preliminary rounds for the first annual DWMA World Fighting Tournament!" the announcer hollered from atop his stand.

The crowd gathered up in the gymnasium roared in cheer.

"We're coming to you live from the DWMA Branch in London, England. Today young meisters and their weapon partners will compete to represent their school at the upcoming national tournament! This will prove once and for all which division of the DWMA is truly the greatest!"

Another cheer rose from the audience.

"With all that out of the way, give a warm welcome to the twenty-four teams that will be participating in today's events!"

A cloud of smoke exploded around the center of the gym floor. The ground opened up and an elevator platform lifted the combatants onto center stage. Yo grumbled as Arondight, in his makeshift body holding onto his meister's shoulder, waved and laughed, trying to draw more attention to them. Next to them stood Destiny, the aristocratic girl Yo had met on his first night in London. She had insisted he be her friend and hung around him almost all the time. Yo figured he had better do as she asked considering she had seen Arondight's true appearance.

On Destiny's other side was her weapon partner, Sher. Yo appreciated Sher's choice of clothing, the classic punk-rock leather and piercings. She seemed the be the exact opposite of Destiny, who commonly wore fancy dresses and skirts. Although opposites do tend to attract meisters and weapons together.

Yo surveyed the rest of the group of meisters and weapons and saw the visitors to his apartment as well. Jean and Juliet Valentine stood together, looking smug and judgmental at the other combatants. Blaze stood by herself. Yo was always confused when he saw the masked meister. Her weapons were never with her. Even now, when one would expect to see _all_ those involved in the tournament, Blaze stood alone.

The announcer picked up the mic again and gestured to a large video screen. "Here are the matchups for today's preliminaries!"

Three tournament brackets appeared on the screen, the names of the teams in each slot. Yo saw his and Arondight's name in the C-block. The Valentine twins were in A-block, along with Destiny and Sher. Yo saw the title "The Sisterhood of Flame" in B-block, which meant Blaze was there with her weapons, wherever they may be.

"Now allow me to go over the rules for today's matches," the announcer yelled. "Each match will consist of two meisters and their weapons. The first meister to pin, disarm, or utterly defeat the other is the winner. Since these are only the preliminaries, and so we don't literally blow the roof off of this place, no Soul Resonances are allowed. Now remember, no unnecessary brutality or maiming is permitted. If anyone breaks any of these rules, it will result in immediate disqualification and the actions that follow. So now without out further ado, let's get this tournament under way! Will the Block A participants please make their way to the ring for the first rounds?! Everyone else please take a breather for now!"

Yo and Arondight stepped off to the side into a cleared out locker room. A television was installed so the waiting combatants could watch the rounds as they rested. Arondight sunk back into Yo's body and grumbled inside.

"I hate waiting!" the Black Blood growled. "I just wanna get out there and work my magic!"

"I haven't seen any of them fight. I wonder how everyone's going to do," Yo said.

"Well looks like you're about to. Those twins are up first."

Yo turned his attention to the TV and saw Jean and Juliet enter the circle against another pair. Their opponents were two boys wearing karate robes, one with long blonde hair, the other with short brown hair.

"Meisters, draw your weapons!" the announcer shouted.

The two boys took each other's hands. The blonde one glowed and transformed into a red, seven-foot staff. Jean took Juliet's hand and began to lead her in a ballroom dance. He extended her out to make her spin, but she began to change instead. Her body glowed and shrunk down into an object that fit in Jean's hand. He opened it and down fell a golden pocket watch hanging by a long chain wrapped around his middle finger.

"What the hell?" Arondight exclaimed. "She's a freakin' watch?!"

The announcer hand up a hand. "Ready?! Fight!"

Faster than Yo could blink, Jean appeared behind the martial artist, kicked his legs out from under him, sent the staff flying across the room, pinned him on the ground with a foot to the chest, the golden watch hanging over his face with a jagged blade jutting from it.

The announcer blinked. "I-I'm not quite sure what just happened…., but the winner appears to be the Valentines!"

The crowd lifted up a small cheer.

"Talk about fast," Yo said.

"What the hell?! That wasn't a fight!" Arondight whined.

"There's something more to that than what we just saw, I know it. We should keep our eye on them."

Yo felt Arondight shift around. "Meanwhile, it looks like your girlfriend is tearing it up out there."

The meister looked back at the screen. Destiny, Sher in hand, was doing wonderfully. Sher was a magic wand that shot waves of energy. Their opponent was an Amazon looking girl with a spear. Destiny appeared to be doing a ballet dance routine as she dodged each strike and let loose spirals of particles. Finally, the Amazon lunged in for a finishing strike. Destiny arced her back to avoid, aimed the wand at her opponent's chest, and shot one large beam. The wild girl fell in exhaustion.

"And the winner is Destiny Callahan and Sher!"

Yo gave a small applause along with the crowd.

"Pretty good," Arondight said.

Yo raised an eyebrow. "Did you just compliment someone?"

A black spike shot out of Yo's back. "Shut up!"

Steps echoed behind Yo. A man's voice called out, "Mr. Uchiyaku?"

The spike shrunk back into his shoulder and Yo turned to face who was speaking to him. In walked the Headmaster of the London DWMA Branch. He was a tall man in his mid-thirties with long blonde hair. He wore what looked robes that would belong to a religious priest, white and flowing that reached his feet. It separated at the waist and showed his black pants and shoes. On his head he wore a tall priest's hat that reached up about a foot tall. Oddly enough, he had earbuds in his ears in the shape of the mask of the Grim Reaper, which looked contradictory to the man's otherwise cleric-like attire.

"Hello Headmaster Law," Yo greeted him, making sure to annunciate his words.

"Ah yes there you are," the school's leader replied. "I just wanted to say we're very proud to have such a talented students such as yourself and Arondight here at our school. The two of you have performed astoundingly in your studies and your combat training in such a short period of time."

"Thank you, Headmaster."

"Speaking of which, where is your partner?"

"He stepped out for a few minutes. He'll be back in time for our match."

Headmaster Law furrowed his brow questioningly. Yo waited for some sort of demanding retort. He felt Arondight squirming in his veins.

"Very well, then. I'll see you out there. Do us proud."

Law walked out of the room. Arondight grew out of Yo's back and stretched his arms.

"That was close, kid," the Black Blood said. "You almost got us caught."

Yo reached up and punched his partner in the chin.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid propped his scythe across his shoulders, stuck his other hand in his pocket, and gave his opponent a bored look. Joey skated around him in a circle, the loud beats playing in his headphones making him faster and faster. He waited until Joey decided to go in for the attack. Joey darted in a diagonal line towards Jarid. He stepped to the side, dodging it. Joey completely shifted his movement style from a circle to random dashes towards Jarid. Jarid grabbed the scythe over his shoulders with both hands and continuously stepped around the short skater's attacks.

"You can't run forever, dog!" Joey shouted.

Jarid yawned. "I don't have to."

He twirled Krystal around in a fast circle, caught Joey in the arc, pulled off the headphones, and launched Joey across the floor. Jarid threw Barney the headphones in the other direction.

The crowd cheered. The announcer shouted, "Jarid van Karsa and Krystal Fang take the second round of the B-block semi-finals!"

Jarid walked off the stage and towards the waiting room. Krystal returned to human form and they sat down next to Veronicka and her weapons.

"You all did quite well," the heiress complimented.

Krystal smiled. "Thanks! You did too!"

Darcy was watching some sort of videos on her phone with some earbuds in. She took them out and stepped in front of the group to show them.

"Guys check this out," she said. "Our rounds are being broadcast online! And the guys from the other schools are looking pretty intense."

Darcy swiped through the pictures of combatants from across the world. One was a tall well-built man in silver armor with a lance, another was a young girl with her hair in double buns and holding two nunchakus, a blonde guy in black slashing away with a serrated sword. The list went on and on. Veronicka's weapon stopped her scrolling and looked back at her phone.

"Oh hey look!" she exclaimed, excitedly. "One of the branches in Europe is broadcasting their matches live!"

The group of friends gathered around the phone to watch. One of the combatants was a thin young woman wearing a golden mask over her eyes and a black bodysuit. Around her right forearm was a golden armored glove that stretched up to her elbow. The other fighter was a young man with a thin Chinese sword. With every strike of the blade, the woman would lean to the side and block with her gauntlet. Finally, one last block turned into a quick turn, and then the girl gave a swift hook to her opponent's stomach, sending him flying across the circle. Then instead of her weapon changing back into human form, it turned to flames and disappeared from her arm.

"She seems pretty good," Jarid said.

Veronicka showed a glimmer of recognition, but didn't act on it. Before Jarid could question it, a roar of applause rose up from the crowd outside. The group of friends rushed out of the waiting room to see what it was all about. In the center of the ring stood Max, raising up his rifle is celebration. His opponent and his weapon lay behind him in exhaustion. Jarid cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at his bro. Max leaped off the stage and gave them all high fives.

"Guys I did it! I actually did it!" Max then realized how amazed he sounded. He crossed his arms to try and make himself look cooler. "I mean of course I did! I'm awesome after all!"

Aqiza transformed back into her human form and flicked her meister on the side of the head. "I think you men _we_ did it."

The group laughed together. The announcer patted the microphone to gain everyone's attention.

"And that concludes the semi-final matches of the preliminary matches! And now to announce all the match-ups for tomorrow's final rounds!"

A new series of pictures popped up on the large video screen. The MC announced each round one at a time. "The first round will be Veronicka McMillan and her weapons Darcy Gibbins and Nikolai Tietov, versus Olivia Ijneg and Abigail Walker!"

Two spotlights flashed on the teams. Jarid could see Abigail jumping up and down with excitement while holding Olivia's hands. Veronicka and her weapons stood all calm and collected.

The announcer continued. "The second round shall consist of Jarid van Karsa and Krystal Fang, versus Juniper Iseley and Louise Vega!"

The lights flooded in Jarid's vision. He could see his partner glare at her rivals. He could tell she'd have fun taking them on.

"And finally, the third match will be our underdog Max Cromwell and his weapon Aqiza Saika, pitted against Chad Williams and Neptune!"

Max raised a fist in his victory. Aqiza clasped her hands together and gave a slight bow. Chad and Neptune were fist-bumping and looking all smug in their corner.

The crowd roared in their celebration. The announcer shouted one last time, "Thank you all for joining us today! We hope to see you all here for tomorrow's final matches to determine which students will go on to represent us in the World Tournament! See you all then!"


	15. UpdateApology

Update

Hey guys this is just an update as to why I haven't uploaded anything in a while. I have been super busy balancing school and work and other things in my personal life. I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and write lately. I apologize for making you guys wait for so long. So this is what I've decided to do. I will be taking a leave from uploading for a while longer. During this time I will go ahead and type out the rest of Soul Eater Type 2 in its entirety, and then start uploading once I have it all typed up. I know you guys love this story and so do I and I love all of you guys for all the support and kind comments. I'm sorry for making you all wait so long, but it's better than me uploading rushed chapters just to meet a quota. With that I hope you all have a wonderful day/week/month of your life and I'll see you all when I get back. Don't forget to be awesome


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: The Preliminary Finals: The Three-way Wall Challenge?**

Jarid twirled his scythe around his body. He did his best to follow his teacher's demonstration.

"That's right. Keep going," Maka encouraged while spinning her own scythe. "Let your Soul Wavelength flow through your weapon. It will allow her to move on her own, making for more quick and fluid movements."

Sure enough, the way Krystal traveled through Jarid's hands and around his body seemed more accurate and fast. Jarid felt this type of movement would help in the deflecting field of his combat style. As if reading his mind, his instructor moved in closer and attacked in her own version of the technique. Jarid matched her movements step per step, sparks flying up from the blades of their scythes. He saw an opening in Maka's movements and moved to take advantage. He brought up Krystal's blade and caught his opponent's, locking them together.

"Check," Jarid said.

A faint grin picked at Maka's mouth. She delivered a knee into Jarid's abdomen, knocking the wind out of him. She jerked her scythe backward, ripping Krystal from Jarid's hands, and sending her flying away. Finally, she spun and delivered a sweeping kick, knocking Jarid to the ground. Maka raised the red and black blade of her scythe over Jarid's throat.

"Checkmate."

Jarid sighed and let his head rest on the ground. He raised both his arms up in defeat. Just as he did so, he heard a familiar _thump_ a few feet away. Max was being pinned down the same way by his sparring partner, Veronicka, as usual.

"Well done Veronicka," Maka said.

The heiress blushed and giggled a slight bit, a side of her Jarid rarely saw.

"The weather down here's nice, ey bud?" Max shouted.

"Hell yeah bro." Jarid gave Max a thumbs-up.

Krystal and Aqiza returned to their mortal forms and helped their meisters stand. Nik and Darcy stood by Veronicka as they joined the line.

Maka clapped. "You all did an excellent job. You're getting better and better every day. Keep up the good work."

Soul leaped from Maka's hand and turned back into the lazy-looking albino who always seemed passive-aggressive towards Jarid. "However, you're still WAY out of our league."

"Soul, you're supposed to build them up, not break them down."

"Not our fault we're way past cool, especially at our age."

Krystal snickered. Soul raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"You're cool? Dad, your sense of style is soooooo thirty years ago. Is that the same jacket you used to wear all the time?"

He looked up and down his black and yellow jacket. It was clearly a different one, but it did have some similarities in to Soul's old outfit. "What's wrong with this thing?'

"Oh, nothing," Krystal giggled.

A look of slight aggravation picked at Soul's face. Maka petted her husband on the shoulder.

"Now, now, let's all get along." She turned to the students. "Today's the day you all enter the finals of this round. How confident are you all?"

"I'm burnin' up and ready to go!" Max exclaimed, excitedly.

"It's nothing we shouldn't be able to handle," Veronicka put in.

Jarid raised a fist. "To be the world champs!"

The other's raised their hands as well and repeated the chant. Maka smiled with pride.

"I'm glad. Now you all hurry on inside. These last rounds will be quite the surprise."

With a few curious looks but no questions, the teenagers headed inside the Academy. Maka wiped a tear from her cheek. Soul looked at his wife, puzzled.

"You alright?"

Maka looked up smiling. "Seeing them, the next generation of meisters and weapons, just brings back good memories."

A voice behind the couple said, "Indeed."

They turned to see Kid walking up the steps to the school. He had grocery bags in each hand.

Soul walked closer and shook his old friend's hand. "Finally get out of the office a little?"

"Father is being the stubborn old fool he is and insisted I go get some snacks for watching the finals. And…I've been meaning to give her a visit lately."

Maka looked down in sadness. "How is she?"

"Same as always. Obviously hurt, but refuses to show it. I thought maybe if Liz and I went to see her it might make her open up a bit, but…" Kid looked a few steps below him. Liz was there, holding some grocery bags in one hand and texting with the other. Kid decided to change the subject. "Well, anyhow, would you two like to join us? We have enough tea and snacks for a few guests."

Maka shook her head. "No thanks. We're going to head on in there. We want to see the looks on their faces when they figure out the twist of the finals."

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Yo found Blaze sitting on the edge of a balcony at the Academy. The quiet masked girl was like a statue, little to no movement at all in her body. Yo decided to sit next to her and hopefully learn something about her or the people she and the Valentines worked for.

"Hey," Yo said.

Blaze's head looked to Yo's direction, but no greeting came back. She looked back out into the distance.

"Okaaaay, so I saw the footage of your matches. You're pretty skilled in a fight."

"I have taken your feedback into consideration and will apply it to my future performance," Blaze replied in an almost autonomous voice.

"Right…so….how come your weapons never walked up on stage with you? They just sort of…appeared on your body."

"My sisters and I share a telepathic link. We are able to communicate with each other via our brainwaves. My sisters also possess the ability of instantaneous teleportation. Therefore, whenever I am required to participate in a combat scenario, my sisters can travel directly to me and equip themselves to my body."

Yo blinked. "That's…impressive. You keep saying 'sisters' as if there are more than one, but so far only one has appeared, the gauntlet on your arm. If you have more than one, why only use one? And how many do you have?"

"Because one is all that is necessary. My combat skills are far superior than those of the opponents I have faced thus far, so there is no need for all of my sisters to exhaust themselves at once. As for how many weapons I have in my possession," Blaze turned her head to Yo once again, "there are five."

"Five weapons?" Yo repeated. "Doesn't that mean you'd have to gather five times as many souls as normal meisters and weapons?"

"Numbers are irrelevant. The result will be the same. My weapons will reach their Death Scythe forms, thus accomplishing my goals as a meister."

Yo remembered how Jean Valentine had described the people they worked for. "That's somewhat different than what you all told me back at my apartment. You said you work for an organization that works to preserve peace. What organization is that exactly?"

"That information is classified," Blaze said, bluntly.

"If you want to preserve peace, then wouldn't you all want your name out there? Why all the secrecy?"

"We are under orders to keep our identities secret. We do as we are told. I suggest you do the same with what we tell you, Yoshiya Uchiyaku. I am well equipped with the knowledge on how to kill someone with your particular…ailment."

She closed her fist to have it engulf in flames, just like it had in her matches. The fire disappeared, revealing the golden armor encasing Blaze's forearm.

Yo knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with this cold, yet fiery young woman. He stood up and headed back inside just as the intercom rang on to call the tournament finalists to come to the arena.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The combatants gathered in the circular fighting ring in the gymnasium. Max saw green lines dividing the ring into three sections like a pie chart. Lord Death took over as the announcer and waved from atop his stand.

"Heya, heya my young friends!" he hollered. "Welcome to the final round of the preliminary tournament!"

The crowd roared in excitement. Max pumped up a fist to draw attention to himself.

"Today we will determine who will go on to represent our branch of the DWMA. Today's matches, however, will be slightly different than what our participants have experienced to this point. Will each pair of combatants step into one of the three sections of the circle please?"

The students did so and the ground began to rumble. Along the green lines walls began to jut up from the ground, cutting off each pair of fighters and their weapons from the others. Then the walls turned sharply above them to form a roof, blocking the view of the ceiling, and leaving them all in total darkness. Max felt Aqiza grab his arm, her hand trembling. He had forgotten she had a slight fear of the dark. Although that was quickly cured because florescent lights switched on inside the newly formed room. An intercom speaker was positioned in the corner. From it, Lord Death's voice boomed out loudly.

"This is the Three-way Wall challenge," their leader said. "These last matches will be held simultaneously, with your view of your fellow fighters blocked. That way, you will not know who the other members of your team will be until all of the rounds have concluded. However, we viewers from outside can see you all from our video screens, so do be sure to follow the rules. So with all that out of the way, meisters draw your weapons!"

Max grabbed Aqiza's hand and felt as her flesh became the metal of a rifle. He saw Neptune transform into the blue trident in Will's hands and was aimed right at Max. Max knew he had to win this, he couldn't let his friends down now. It was time to prove himself. He aimed Aqiza behind him and fired, sending him flying towards his opponent.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Veronicka paced slowly around her opponent, sword and shield in hand. Abigail had become a really long silver-bladed katana with a long pink ribbon flowing from the end of the grip. It fluttered around although there was no wind in this semi-circle room. Veronicka had never seen Oliva fight before, so she didn't quite know what to expect. Most people would underestimate a blind opponent. However, judging from the vast amount of detail that was put into the painting Darcy had brought home, this foe had a certain way of seeing. Veronicka just needed to find out what that was.

She took one step then sent her Soul Wavelength surging through her legs, sending her speeding around Oliva in multiple directions. Suddenly she shifted and dashed at Olivia from behind and slashed with her rapier. Almost just as fast, Olivia grabbed her sword with both hands, raised it over her head so the blade went down her back and blocked the strike. The impact was so strong a shockwave of air pushed out around them. Veronicka's eyes widened.

Oliva snickered, then broke the locked blades and started slashing and stabbing pristine strikes. Veronicka had to use her speed to keep up and blocked and dodged the onslaught of attacks. She kicked off of the ground to make room between her and her foe. A small smile spread across Olivia's face.

"Surprised?" she asked.

Veronicka wiped the sweat from her brow. "Slightly. I will be honest I became a little overconfident. I apologize for that."

"Oh, it's okay."

"I won't make the same mistake twice." The heiress took a fighting stance, Darcy's blade pointed at Oliva.

"Good. I want to face your best." Olivia raised her blade in one hand out away from her body.

The two dashed towards each other and began their true battle.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid twirled his scythe in a quick circle to extinguish the fire balls being launched at him. He propped Krystal on his shoulders and glared at his opponent. Juniper was clearly taking this seriously, launching attacks almost as soon as the match began. In her hand was her weapon, Louise, a brown, leather spell book with chains wrapped around it. She could use it to send any variety of attacks, making her unpredictability an actual challenge.

She opened the book, the chains unraveling almost instantly for her, flipped to what seemed to be a random page, quickly ran a finger down the page and closed the book. The instant the book closed, magical glowing blue runes appeared around Juniper. The runes flew along the ground around Jarid's feet. He jumped just to barely miss them as the runes became a spike of solid ice where he had stood. As he came down, Jarid flipped his scythe upside down and slid down the slope of ice along the blade. He launched himself at Juniper, only to see her cast another spell and blocks of stone jutting up from the ground creating a barrier between them.

"Annoying little…," Krystal mumbled in her weapon form.

"What's the matter Krystal?" they heard Juniper yell. "Am I too hot to handle for you?"

On cue, a hole opened up in the wall that had formed and a huge fireball shot out at them. Jarid rolled to the side barely missing it. The projectile collided with a wall and fluttered out. It took a moment for Jarid to notice the ends of his pants had caught fire a small bit. He panicked for a second then quickly patted out the flames.

"Do you see any openings yet?" Jarid asked his partner.

"I think so, but I need to be sure. Keep her attacking so I can watch more," Krystal replied.

Jarid sighed, hooked his weapon along the top of the wall, flipped his whole body over it and flew at his opponent.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Max's battle had started out okay. He was clearly faster than Chad, and had no problem landing a few quick blows. But where Chad lacked in speed, he made up for in raw strength. He caught Max with his guard down and landed a knee to the gut, knocking the breath out of him. He had also managed to deflect a swing with Aqiza by swinging back with his weapon, Neptune. His effortless swing had so much power, it sent Max spinning away, Aqiza'a metal form shaking in his hand. Chad swung down this his trident and Max blocked only to hear Aqiza whimper in pain. He shot his gun to back off.

"Come on, loser," Chad mocked. "You gotta do a lot better than that to beat me."

Max grit his teeth and dashed again. This time Chad just turned away to dodge, used his free hand to grab Max by the collar, and threw him against the wall of their arena. Max felt his whole body throb as he slid down to the floor. He looked behind him to see a Max-shaped dent in the wall. His back cried in pain, but he managed to stand and scowled at Chad. He fired a few shots at him, but Chad deflected them with ease. His boots were shaking. He didn't want to admit it… but he was actually scared of losing here. He bit his lip to denounce the thought. He couldn't. He refused to.

Then, faster than he could think of a plan, Chad delivered a devastating punch to Max's face, sending him sprawling across the floor.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

For the first time in a while, Veronicka felt nervousness and confusion during a battle. Olivia somehow was able to move and react just as fast as her. What technique could that possibly be. Then the thought occurred to her. She remembered her sparring match with Jarid. He had done something similar, but to a much lesser degree. No doubt he had learned it from this girl. Veronicka dashed at Oliva and lunged with Nik out front to block an attack. But instead, Oliva ducked down as Veronicka dashed past, the ribbon on her katana wrapping around the swordswoman's legs. Veronicka tripped and fell on her face. She flipped around and found Oliva pointing her sword at her. Quickly, Veronicka deflected the blade away and released herself from the ribbon.

 _I believe I know what she's doing now_ , Veronicka thought. _She's sending out her Soul Wavelength through Abigail and into the air around her. That way she has a somewhat image of where I might be, then she relies on her reaction time to predict my attacks. It seems I'm not being as strategic as I need to be. I have only one idea left that I can do._

"Vee, don't" Veronicka heard Darcy say. "I know what you're thinking, but it's too risky. You could cause some serious stress on your body."

"Agreed," Nik chimed in.

"I understand your concerns, I really do," she replied to them. "However, this in the only way I know how to win at this moment that stays within the boundaries of the rules."

She shifted Darcy into a backhanded hold and dug her feet into the ground. She closed her eyes then poured all of her energy into her legs and feet, more so than normally. She was using approximately twice the amount of energy than she would, but this was the only way she could win. She took one step and wound up behind Olivia.

Veronicka said to Oliva a quick, "I'm sorry for this" then delivered a blow to the back of her head with the shield, knocking Olivia unconscious. She caught her opponent before she hit the ground. Abigail turned back to her human form and helped collect her meister. Suddenly the walls surrounding them sank back into the ground, revealing them to the audience, who had apparently been watching the matches via television screens set up around the gymnasium. The announcer cleared his throat and started yelling into his microphone.

"And it appears the first to emerge victorious in these preliminary rounds, with a win by knockout, is Veronicka McMillan, along with her weapons, Darcy Gibbins and Nikolai Tietov!"

The crowd cheered. Veronicka waved mildly, then continued to aid Abigail move her meister off the stage to the infirmary. She felt a pang of agony in her legs, but she toughed it out and kept moving.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

When Jarid woke up that morning, he didn't expect to be running from a boulder like some 80s adventure movie, yet here he was. Juniper had created a series of walls inside the room and dropped a big boulder that followed him down every turn

"Get ready Krystal!" he yelled to his partner. "This might hurt a bit!"

"Huh?"

Jarid jumped, did a quick turn in the air, and sliced the giant rock in half. He felt the scythe jitter in his hands. He'd have to apologize to her later for that. A strange sound echoed down from the makeshift corridor. Juniper appeared in a poof of black smoke, her book in-hand. She gave a coy smile and opened her book once again. The scythe meister payed close attention to her as she did this. The runes that appeared this time were colored a bright green.

"Any last words?" Juniper asked, confidently.

Jarid gripped his scythe and prepared for the attack. Juniper slammed her book shut and the greens symbols glowed brighter and fired four consistent beams of light. Jarid swayed to the side and ran along side the beams towards Juniper. He heard the walls behind him getting destroyed. Juniper shut off the lasers and flipped to another page. However just before she finished casting, Jarid reached the staff of his scythe along the inside of her book, keeping it from being closed.

Juniper gave him a look of surprise.

"You can't do anything now. You had to close the book to finish the spell." After saying this, Jarid shoved the book from her hands and used Krystal to trap her against a wall. He winked at her, then the walls came down.

"And the winner of the second round is Jarid van Karsa and Krystal Fang!" the MC shouted from above. The gym filled with excitement.

Juniper and Louise wandered sadly off stage. Jarid took a look at one of the screens that showed the last match between Max and Chad. And it wasn't looking too good…

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Max was down on his hands and knees. His jaw and ribs hurt and he had to will himself just to stand. Meanwhile Chad stood a few feet away with a few bruises but nothing too major. Aqiza lied beside him, her reflection looking concerned in the blade of her bayonet.

"Just give up already, shrimp," Chad bullied. "You don't have what it takes. You're not strong," Chad picked Max up by the collar again, "you're not special, and you're a waste! You think you can be a hero? You're nowhere near strong enough. Go back to the toddlers where you belong."

Chad threw Max across the floor. Max let himself rest on the floor for a moment. He heard Chad make his way towards him. Then he heard the clicking of heels and looked over his shoulder to see Aqiza standing between them.

Chad propped up on his trident and tried to look cool. "Hey girl. You know you aren't gonna be a Death Scythe working with a scrub like that. Why don't you come partner up with me? I know Neptune here wouldn't mind it."

Neptune yelled from inside his weapon form, "Hey! Not cool bro!"

Light flickered across Aqiza's glasses. "You two are morons and rude as all hell. You think you're going to be heroes? Trash like you doesn't deserve to go to this school!"

"Only the strong survive. If he can't even handle this, then he should just go sit in the corner and cry."

"A hero doesn't push people around and bully people. A hero is measured by his actions! Sometimes a hero isn't the strongest person, but it's sometimes just a kid who wants it the most!"

Max smiled. He pull himself up and placed his hand on her shoulder. "She says some funny stuff, doesn't she? You're right, Chad. I'm not as strong as you. But that doesn't mean I can't be a hero." He squeezed Aqiza's shoulder and she transformed once again. "I will be a hero. I will get stronger. Because there ain't nobody who wants it more than me!"

Max felt a welling of his Soul Wavelength within him. He charged once again at Chad. Chad raised his trident to slam Max into the ground, but Max swung his rifle upwards. The impact was so great, Neptune and Aqiza flew out of their meisters' hands. But before Chad could respond, Max planted his feet, summoned all his strength, and delivered a punch into Chad's midsection. The bully was sent flying so far he busted through the wall of the room. Immediately, the walls retracted and Max was revealed as the winner. However, his energy was completely drained, and he started to lose consciousness. Luckily Aqiza ran over to prop him up. She smiled at him with a proud look. He felt glad that he could make her happy for once. Her smile was the last thing he saw before the world went dark.

. . . . . . . . . . .

Jarid ran over to help Aqiza carry Max. Veronicka and her weapons had returned from the infirmary and joined them on the stage. The audience was cheering and applauding at their loudest so far. Lord Death had taken the mic and was congratulating them.

"Take a good look everyone!" he bellowed. "These are the students that will go on to the World Tournament! Wish them the best of luck!"

. . . . . . . . . . . .

"These are some very interesting participants, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, indeed, sir," Jean Valentine replied to the man speaking to him on his laptop's screen.

"Let's see here…the last Branch to have selected its team is the one in America…yes these students show great potential…keep an eye on them, Jean. And that Yoshiya fellow too. I see them as possible threats to our plan. Leave no loose ends if the operation turns south."

"Yes, sir. I understand."

"And what of your sister?"

"She's scouting out the school, trying to find any hidden entry points for future reference."

"I see…well then, see to it that you don't fail me. Unless you'd like to end up like your predecessors."

"I understand, sir."


End file.
